Fairies of Negima
by Elsil
Summary: After returning from their mission at the village of the Eternal Flame, Natsu and company encounter Zeref. Energies clash, and Fairy Tail's strongest team is flung into Negima's world. Join Fairy Tail's mages as they fight to find one another in a strange universe and join Ala Alba in saving two worlds from destruction. Love, humor, and action await!
1. Chapter 1: Bonds of Golden Fire

**Disclaimer: **The following story is a fan made work of fiction. _Fairy Tail_ and _Mahou Sensei Negima!_ are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.

**Chapter 1**

**Bonds of Golden Fire**

Seeing the young wizards play within his spring placed a smile upon Warrod's aged face. The powerful mage had seen many things over the years, but nothing to outshine the bonds between mages of Fairy Tail. Mavis and her successors had done well in bringing the founders' shared dream to fruition.

Good fruit too, with a sweet and sugary taste that spoke of the golden sun. Yet still not quite as delectable as a good potato. Warrod giggled to himself. '_The young have no appreciation for good food these days, even when its handed to them __as a reward__,_' he grumbled. The young had no appreciation of good food and jokes.

"_Na__aaa__-tsu__u__u__uu__!_"

"Erza, _no_, I didn't -"

"_Die!_"

Warrod and the other fairies laughed as the naked redhead assaulted the male pinkette with righteous vengeance. The bond between those two was especially strong to Warrod's eyes, with the flavors of childhood and battle mixed together. The man's cries of pain as the woman proceeded to show him that his elbows could actually reach places he screamed were impossible reminded the elderly wizard of Fairies from bygone days.

"Erza, please, my head can't do that. It really can't!"

"Hoh." She muttered, Re-Quipping a leather whip, "You dare talk back to me? Know your place!"

Warrod heard the whip snap and winced. "I have some fruit that could fix that for you later," he told Natsu.

A brief note of hope entered the dragon slayer's voice. "_Really?_"

The old mage showed his teeth as he smiled. "No. That was a joke."

Meanwhile the Ice wizard Gray quietly swam to the far side of the pool, joining the blonde haired woman, Lucy. For a brief moment nothing happened, then she screamed and grabbed the blue cat to shield her body.

"Lucy! My body isn't meant to hide your fetishes."

"Shut it Happy!" the busty blonde responded with a blush. "My body is too young to be violated by a pervert like Gray. And I don't have any fetishes, stupid cat!"

Virgo popped into view beside Lucy."But you do, princess! You have a whip like Erza's and you often undress when - "

"_Forced __G__ate __C__losure!_" Lucy cried out, swiping a key that she produced from beneath the water. "No one asked your opinion!"

With his head wreathed in Virgo's dissolving matter, Gray scowled at Lucy. "Oi, stop calling me a pervert, dumb Lucy. Virgo was right; you're naked almost as often as I am." His scowl deepened. "At least I have the decency to keep my underwear on."

Lucy's head snapped back to face Gray again."I'm not dumb, you stripping pervert! And it's not by choice!" Lucy whined as she desperately tried to find a bush or rock to hide behind. "Everyone always my clothes off. Like that damn perverted dragon."

Happy covered his mouth with one paw. "And yet no one really touches what's underneath, pffft!"

Lucy plunged the blue cat headfirst into the water. "_Die, Happy, __die__!_"

Nights like this made Warrod miss the guild; he was glad that he had sent the mission request to Fairy Tail. It seemed that his plan to save the village had worked out better than intended. He had initially requested two who represented the guild's spirit for the mission to save the frozen village. He wound up with seven amazing Fairies instead. '_Mavis, wherever you are, __please __watch over them. They will need you in the trying days ahead._'

The antics of Fairy Tail's mages continued under the starry skies. The scarlet haired woman mercilessly beat down her pink-haired companion asthe blue-haired girl tried to calm the older woman down. Happy grabbed Lucy's keys and convinced Ge-Mini to play with Gray. Gray tried to run away but knocked Erza down in the middle of her assault on Natsu, forcing the Ice Mage to share the fire breather's gruesome fate. Warrod stepped in with a rock, offering it to whomever proved themselves worthy of his three tests. All of the young mages stared at him uneasily until he announced that it was a joke. Then they tried to drown him.

The mages laughed and played in the steaming water for what felt like an eternity. They fought and they cried, telling stories of dreams shared and comrades gained deep into the night. They were Fairy Tail; the guild of mages with bonds of golden fire.

* * *

The laughter shared between them almost made Warrod miss the vanishing of a spell-ward. For a moment he hesitated, trying to what caused its disappearance. Then a second ward fell and a third soon after, leaving only five more intact. But they fulfilled their secondary purpose and allowed him to sense the magic of the one who had torn them asunder. _'Zeref.'_

Warrod stood up straight and stepped out of the spring, stretching his senses throughout the plants of his abode. He could feel multiple other beings reeking of dark magic other than Zereft closing in fast. One felt of fire, while another one felt of ice. Both were in close proximity. The others were distant, and Warrod couldn't ascribe a feeling to them.

"Mages," he snapped, grim faced, "Gather to me. Enemies approach and there is not much time." He paused for a moment. "This is not a joke."

The merriment died almost immediately. The scarlet haired woman Re-Quipped into a silver battle suit as she moved, Natsu gave a growl and a short yell of '_bring it on_' as he grabbed his scarf from a nearby rock, while the others quickly gathered to his position at the pool's edge. Warrod glanced around, judging their strength one more and reaching an unhappy conclusion. "Quickly now, join hands in a circle around me."

A pause filled the air, broken by Gray and Natsu's muttered, "Huh? This isn't one of your lame jokes now is it you senile old fart?"

Beside them Lucy muttered while holding a small towel around her body."Natsu, Gray, don't you dare look at Wendy or me. Keep your eyes shut until we find some clothes."

Warrod's eyes tightened. The time for games was over. "No, children, it is not." Warrod sighed sadly. "Zeref is coming, and I am about to unleash one of Fairy Tail's three great magics: Fairy Sphere."

At this statement, the faces of the mages grew pale. Natsu and Erza looked angered while both Wendy and Lucy jerked their hands out of the grasps of their friends. "No," Wendy said, "Not that. Please don't use that spell."

Lucy nodded and added, "We can fight them, Warrod-senpai! We're Fairy Tail's Strongest team! We don't need to leave our comrades behind again." She shuddered. "We already left them for seven long years."

Warrod hesitated. Erza took that hesitation to add in her opinion. "Warrod-sama, respectfully, with our powers combined and leading us as our captain, we could fight anything on this planet."

Natsu's flaring flames spoke of his agreement."Heck, we could take on a dragon with Wendy and me!" Natsu snorted as smoke wreathed his face. "Even Ice-pants, Carla, and Happy would chip in if something like that happened. Besides," he added, "I owe Zeref for damaging my scarf."

"Aye, sir!"

"Tell 'em Happy!"

A moment passed as Warrod looked into their determined gazes. Touched by their dedication and spirit, he reconsidered his options. Perhaps he was wrong and they could triumph after all. Maybe Mavis' predictions were wrong, and the young Fairies had grown strong enough to handle this great test.

Yet a slow, steady clap filled the air, gripping Warrod's heart with its steady beat. "Well spoken, Natsu. I really have missed you. But dead men shouldn't talk," spoke a surprisingly light voice. It was Zeref, standing at the back entrance of Warrod's home. Stopping his clap, the dark mage stretched out his hands towards the group of Fairies. "So die."

"Down, now!" Warrod cried out as he summoned a wall of wood to block Zeref's deadly magic. The buckled but held, blocking Zeref's deadly magic for a time.

"Not bad, Warrod-san," came a call from behind the wooden barrier, "One of the four gods of Ishgal is a worthy opponent, but can you block the next two attacks as well?"

Warrod's eyes widened. Thinking that Zeref had an ace up his sleeve, the elder wood mage grew a cage from his wooden wall which quickly stretched around the death magus. Branches grew faster than the eye could follow, trapping and sealing his magic away from the outside world.

Then fire and ice flashed around them, drawing a cry from Carla and sending the others to the stone pavement with meaty thuds. Warrod flinched as flames touched his right shoulder before quickly disappearing. Zeref hadn't been referring to himself.

"Dammit!" Natsu yelled as he sucked in the flames, "That was too fast to get all of it. You guys okay?"

Warrod twisted his head around and saw Gray shudder as he stared at a dozen spear points of ice halted a fingers width distance from his face alone. "We're okay Natsu." The Ice Mage looked around. "Did anyone see where that shit came from?"

Beside the elderly mage, Erza lifted two swords and pointed them towards both sides of Warrod's house. "There, on both sides. I caught a glimpse of two men; one who looked like Gray and Guildarts' love child on the left, and another who looked like a jackal on the right." Stepping forward and to the left, she called more swords into being. "Alright everyone, spread out. We're too concentrated where we are currently situated. Pick a partner and move on my comm -"

"Stop! Don't spread out and stick together!" Warrod tried to say. But the struggle against Zeref's magic was too great; the dark mage had renewed his assault behind the wooden barrier and it was taking all of Warrod's might to hold his foe in check. The wood mage's voice came out as less than a whisper. He could only mouth the words he wanted to yell.

The mages of Fairy Tail quickly split up and set off, with two sets of partners picking a different direction while Erza, Wendy, and Carla stayed to support Warrod in the center. Lucy tried to grab a Natsu's clothes on her way out, but a look from Erza sent the blonde haired mage running after Gray.

It would only be a short matter of time before the sounds of battle rang as Fairies and Demons met in combat.

* * *

Natsu and Happy took to the air and shot off towards the group's right. "Neh, Natsu, is this the direction of the fire user?"

Natsu nodded his head. "I think so, Happy. I caught a whiff of smoke from this direction before the wind shifted. Whoever he is, he's mine. Ah, look there!" Natsu spotted a figure flanking the group's right, trying to stay of Erza's line of sight. "Let's go, Happy! Dive-bomb attack"

"Aye!" The blue cat cried.

"_Fire dragon's -" _Natsu began.

Below them, the figure finished his flanking maneuver. Sighting his targets, the man smiled and raised his hands. "Jackal says, _b__oom_," he screamed.

"- _slash!_" finished Natsu with a roar.

With a thud and a blast of fire, Jackal went flying into the thick forest behind Warrod's house. Natsu grinned triumphantly while raising a blazing fist. "If that's all he's got, then this'll be a piece of cake, Happy."

"Or a yummy fish, aye!"

* * *

Gray and Lucy had taken the left side of the house as they pursued a fleeing shadow. After walking some distance into the woods in an effort to pick up the shadow's trail, Gray suddenly placed a hand on Lucy's shoulder. Remaining silent, she looked back and saw his narrowed eyes.

The woods incredibly thick and Gray couldn't see his opponent. Added to the power and finesse that had gone into the initial ice magic, and something felt wrong about this situation. The Ice Mage felt a pattern begin to take shape as alarm bells went off in his head. '_Shit'_. "Lucy – trap!_ Ice Make – Sphere!_" He yelled, crashing his closed fist into an open palm. An ice barrier sprang up around himself and Lucy, enclosing them against an attack from any angle.

Just in time. A crashing wave of ice came rolling in from three sides, crashing against Gray's barrier and threatening to crush it. "Lucy, I need some backup." Gray grunted as a second wave crashed into the barrier, sending cracks shooting through the ice. "This guy is good."

Lucy nodded as she held up a key. "I'm on it! _Gate of the Lion – Open_!" A brilliant flash lit the surrounding trees, illuminating Lucy and Gray's faces as a dashingly dressed man in shades appeared. "Alright Gray, open a hole in the barrier. And Loki?"

Wrapping an arm around her naked shoulders, the svelte man purred into her ear. "Yes, princess?" Slapping the arm away, Lucy moved behind him and gestured towards the forest. "Sic 'em!"

"As you comma-" the spirit's voice cut-off in mid-sentence. Lucy's eyes widened. Loki stood frozen, one hand raised in salute and a cocky grin on his face. A chill swept through Lucy's body as she fumbled for more keys.

Gray's face was shocked. '_I didn't feel anything._' He thought to himself. '_Not even Leon, __master __or Ur could pull that off without me feeling _some_ sort of magical signature. What kind of ice magic does this guy have?_' Gray nervously scanned the surroundings. If another attack like that came, he wasn't certain he could react in time unless he saw it coming.

Meanwhile, Lucy was frantically swiping her keys in the air. "Loki, go home. _Close Gate! _Next, _Gate of the Goat – Open!_"

A second flash lit the woods as a well dressed Satyr appeared. "I understand the situation, Lucy-sama. Meh power will soon weaken him." Gray hoped the goat-man was right.

After a time of trading spells and running through the woods, Lucy and Gray stood back to back. A flush crept up on both their faces as Lucy's bare bottom touched his own. Yet neither mage moved a limb as Capricorn walked a steady circle around them. Silence and the sound of crackling ice descended on the woods.

* * *

Back at the hot springs, Warrod could only grit his teeth as Zeref's magic slowly ate through his wooden barrier. The elder mage had expanded and reinforced it several times, keeping the dark mage enclosed and cut off. Here, in Warrod's home, the elder mage's power was at its greatest peak short of Tenrou island. Yet as Zeref's magic burned its way outward, Warrod felt that his advantage wouldn't be enough to stop this particular enemy.

Warrod could hear the three female mages behind him planning something. One of them spoke, and new strength flowed through his body. The onslaught of Zeref's magic slowed as Warrod's strengthened. Looking behind him, he noticed the young blue-haired girl concentrating intently as magic gathered in her hands and flowed into his body. "My thanks, little one." He said with a forced chuckle. "Those old buns of mine needed a little warming."

Flushing crimson at his words, Wendy could only stutter for a moment before Erza silenced her with a look. "Warrod-sama," the scarlet swordswoman stated, "do you need my help to defeat Zeref, or can I go join one of the other pairs in battle?" When he didn't respond, Erza frowned. "Warrod-sama, please answer my question. Time is of the essence and we need to divvy our forces up into the most effective units."

Warrod' took his time in answering. When he finally did it was with a heavy voice. "I understand that little fairy. But you must trust in my words when I say the following," Warrod let out a tight breath between his aged teeth, "that victory over our foes is impossible this night."

Erza's eyes widened. "But Warrod-sama-"

"No, my courageous fairy, victory is impossible. I lack the power to destroy Zeref even with your help." The wood mage's great eyebrows waggled in sorrow. "I contain him for the moment, but his magic is slowly turning my barrier to dust." Warrod's eyes flickered to the sides, where fierce explosions rang on one and the sound of ice grinding on ice could be heard from the other. "I fear that our guild-mates have found terrible opponents of their own."

Shifting his stance, he placed both of his hands onto the wooden barrier and let them sink into the wood. "You must summon them back while I still have the strength to cast _Fairy Sphere_." Warrod looked behind him once more and arrested the scarlet haired woman with his stare. "For the sake of our guild and the crest that you bear, do as I ask. Quickly, for more foes approach."

Erza stood still for a long moment, locking eyes with the elder mage. He saw the muscles in her face tighten up and watched one of her hands twitch the sword it bore. Every instinct seemed to be screaming at her to ignore his words and fight their enemies with her blades. She was the knight of Fairy Tail; to do otherwise would be to admit defeat.

Yet after a time Erza closed her eyes and nodded in defeat. "As you order, Warrod-sama." Several of her swords vanished from view. She then placed a hand on Wendy's shoulder. "Wendy, Carla go get Natsu and Happy. I'll locate Gray and Lucy. Come back here as soon as you find them, and move quickly. Understood?"

The two younger women nodded in acknowledgment. "Aye!"

Carla palmed her furry face as soon as Erza moved away. "We just sounded like Happy, didn't we Wendy?"

Wendy nodded, crestfallen to Warrod's eyes. "Erza... she has that effect on people." Wendy gulped. "It's frightening."

"If only it worked on Zeref," Carla muttered as she looked for Wendy's clothes.

"Wendy, Carla, _now!_" Came the redhead's voice.

"Aye, Erza!" They chorused again.

* * *

Natsu screamed as a blast tore through his body. The guy he was fighting used some sort of weird power that Natsu couldn't figure out. For only the second time since he had become a dragon-slayer, fire was hurting him. It wasn't right!

Natsu's body slammed into the ground. As the pain flashed through his mind the dragon slayer tried to push it aside and think. He had punched his opponent too many times to remember each one very clearly, but every time he landed a hit on his enemy it seemed that an explosion tore through Natsu as well. There had to be some kind of trick to that effect, something the Dragon Slayer could use to flip the table and pound his enemy into the ground.

"Oh, is that all the famous and mighty son of Igneel can offer?" his opponent called, coming into view from behind a burning tree. "I guess it doesn't really matter if you're a fairy or a dragon – or both! All things quake at the feet of demons." A dark grin lit his eyes. "All creatures are food for me, for I am the demon Jackal."

Natsu slowly lifted his head from the dirt. His limbs were heavy, and some of his ribs didn't feel quite right, but he wasn't finished yet. "Lift up your head and witness your demise, mortal," Jackal purred. "With every blow each of us lands you come one step close to death."

That was it! Every blow Natsu landed on the other mage actually _did_ cause an explosion to hit Natsu as well. But the next question was _how_ did it occur. Was it transferred by contact from body to body? If so, was it delayed or was it instantaneous?

"Natsu, I'm coming!" Happy cried out from above. The blue cat began to dive, aiming for Jackal's head.

Natsu choked on his own breath as he forced himself to stand. "No Happy, stay back." Pushing himself up with sheer force of will, Natsu stood unbowed as he glared down the approaching demon with a cocky grin. "I've almost got his trick figured out. And demon, human, or sack of shit, it doesn't matter." A vein ticked above Natsu's left eye as Happy broke off his approach. "He's mine."

Jackal sneered as he approached, "What's there to figure out, dumb ass? I'll tell you!" Jackal slapped his chest and crowed, "My body curses those who dare touch it. It is unavoidable and inevitable. Your own hits doom you to an endless symphony of explosions as I curse you; again and again and again!" A low chuckle ripped through his mouth. "I like my meat burned and tenderized, little boy, and I feel like placing an order to the butcher today."

Stopping shortly before the bloodied and defiant dragon slayer, the demon let his sneer drop. The two opponents stared at one another for a long moment. "Mortals should know their place."

Natsu grinned wildly as he cracked the knuckles of his flaming right hand. "Ha! I do, moron. _Fire Dragon's Iron-Fist!_" With a flash of fire and a burst of magical power, Natsu sent his enemy flying out of sight and deep into the forest. "My fist belongs in your face!" He screamed triumphantly.

Moments later an explosion tore through him, sending Natsu to the ground and ripping the surrounding area apart. Blood and dirt soon clouded his sight. Happy cried out above him and Natsu soon felt the exceed's paws gripping the back of his shirt. He blinked, trying to clear the blood and dirt out of his eyes.

It took a moment but Natsu stood once more on shaky feet. He slowly wiped his left arm across his face to clear his vision and considered Jackal's trick. The spells were time delayed after all. Slow enough for him to catch it, Natsu thought, but fast enough that he would have to pay close attention. The dragon slayer tried to move forward but stopped, grabbing hold of his knees as his body told him to be still. With his body in such a terrible condition, Natsu would have to give it everything he had in order to win.

Happy hovered in front of his face with a worried expression. "Natsu, you don't look too good." He murmured. "Will you be alright? That guy is really tough after all. Nothing like fish." The flying cat studied his friend closely. "Maybe we should find Wendy and have her take a look while that guy picks himself up. I think he flew pretty far away."

Natsu forced himself to let go of his knees and straighten up. "My body's good enough, Happy. Besides, they have their own fights and we've got to end things here." He took a deep breath as wind blew the smoke-filled air. A perplexed look rose on his face as he picked up a powerful and familiar scent. "Or maybe they'll come to us," he growled in confusion.

* * *

Wendy bit her thumb as she and Carla flew through the air. The battle hadn't been going for very long, but already there was a swath of devastation carved into the landscape. Trees lay broken in long columns with huge pieces of ground churned and ripped apart. Everything was on fire and smoke filled the air. Whomever Natsu was fighting must have been very powerful to withstand the blasts he had unleashed.

"Wendy, I can't see them at all," Carla said. "Can you smell them?

Wendy took a quick sniff and let out a worried sigh. "I can, but with all the smoke in the air I can't pin it down. I'm sorry for failing, Carla." Wendy wanted to cry at her failure. She could usually pick out Natsu's fiery smell of brimstone from miles away, but there was just too much smoke and fire for the young dragon slayer to pick it out.

Carla hugged the small dragon slayer tighter in her arms. "It's okay Wendy, we'll find them soon, safe and sound. I can feel it. Maybe the noise will start up again." The flying cat pursed her lips. "But I hope not."

Carla's prediction soon came true."Carla! Wendy! Down here!"

"See Wendy, there's that yowling tomcat already." Wendy giggled a little at Carla's soft tone and scowling face. "Too stubborn and too dumb to die, just like his master."

"Carla! I have a booboo. Can you kiss it to make it feel better?"

This time Carla's voice lacked the softness of earlier. "Whatever you do Wendy, please don't treat it."

As Happy kept yelling inane comments while Carla sighed, the two girls quickly zeroed in on his voice. Fires raged all around them, yet the area around Natsu was devoid of any danger. Everything with ten meters had been reduced to charcoal and ash.

"Natsu-san! Happy!" Wendy called out as she and Carla landed next to the boy and his cat. "You've got to come back quickly! I just came from the springs, and Warrod-sama says that he can't hold Zeref for long, and that more demons are approaching, and that –" Wendy gasped as she got a good look at Natsu's wounds through the black ash that covered his entire body. "Natsu, _what happened_? Quick, let me heal you."

Natsu tried to beat her back with his good arm but stopped when she managed to dodge and grab hold of his injured right hand. "Eh, it wasn't much," he growled as she looked him over while holding his hand. "The guy I'm fighting has some sort of weird little trick that it took me a while to figure out."

Listening to the pinkette speak, Wendy began growling at his words. He had three broken ribs, half of the fingers on his right hand were broken, and if the internal bleeding within his chest was any indication, he had been suffering internal trauma from multiple explosions. "_Little_ tricks do not cause this sort of damage, Natsu-san," she bit out as she tried to quickly heal the worst of the damage. "_Big_ tricks do."

Natsu just kept talking, grim eyed but with a light tone of voice. "But now I've got it figured out, so no worries, Wendy. The bastard won't know what hit him next time, and man did I hit him good there. Once I land few more hits on him the guy's finished! Aha ha!"

Happy landed on his left shoulder and poked the dragon slayer in the cheek. "Ne, Natsu, I don't think he knew what hit him the last time you punched him. It's been over a minute and he still hasn't come back." Happy clapped his paws together. "I know – maybe you killed him!"

Despite the situation they were in and the state of Natsu's body, Wendy couldn't help but giggle as she heard Carla sigh behind her.

"Tomcat, if that was actually true, things still wouldn't change much." The small white cat ticked points off on her paws. "Natsu looks half-dead even with Wendy healing him, Warrod-sama is failing, more enemies are approaching, and who knows what is happening with Gray and the others."

Jumping onto Natsu's head, she punched both of the males hard enough to make them wince. "We have to go back a.s.a.p." Carla stared hard at the two as rebellious looks came onto their faces. "Those are Erza's orders, so no arguing either."

Wendy saw Natsu's jaws open and shut fast enough that she heard them click together. _The Erza effect at work __again__._

Wendy finished her emergency healing and stepped back to examine Natsu's body one final time. It wasn't even close to being fully healed but would have to do for now. "How does it feel, Natsu-san?" All the major breaks had been knitted back together and she had stopped the internal bleeding, but tissue flexibility and bone durability might still be an issue. She blushed a little as she noticed a tattoo of some sort that curled on his bottom right hip.

Natsu rotated his shoulder and flexed his hand several times. He let out a grunt. "It feels like I tried to punch Gray's thick skull one too many times, and my chest doesn't feel quite right, but I've fought with worse." Looking down at Wendy, the grim look in his eyes faded somewhat as he smiled slightly. "Thanks a ton, Wendy. Let's get back to the others."

Wendy smiled in return. Natsu's warm words always made her feel better about things.

"By the way, Wendy," commented Natsu as they took to the air with the aid of the exceed. "I never knew that you had a tattoo down there."

The blush that lit up her face at Natsu's words could have outshone the moon. Why had their enemies attacked while the Fairy Tail mages were in, of all places, an outdoors hot-spring?

After a moment, Wendy managed to stutter out a reply. "I didn't know you had one either, Natsu-san."

Natsu's voice burned with pride. "I don't have just one – I've got three!"

Wendy wondered if she would ever stop blushing again.

* * *

Erza had Re-Quipped her gear, exchanging _Heaven's Wheel_ for her_ Flight Armor_. It's greater speed allowed to her bound through the forest with ease. Equipping it had made catching up with Lucy and Gray simple.

Unfortunately, she was now stuck in the same mess as they were and was having difficulty coming up with a solution. They were stuck in a hollow between two small hills. Trees surrounded them on all sides while frozen plants, mounds of ice and gaping holes dotted the forest. The enemy mage still hadn't shown himself.

Looking at her guild-mates, Erza frowned in concern. "Gray, Lucy, how are the two of you holding up?" Lucy was gasping and visibly shaking to Erza's sight. The Celestial mage fumbled another key out of her key box. Despite being such a short battle, she had already been forced to use six of the ten Zodiac spirits in order to stay alive.

"I'm alright for more, Erza. I've still got some gates left," the blonde responded. "But I'm no good for a close up fight."

Gray chimed in afterward with barely a hitch in his voice. "I could go all night Erza. This bastard won't get the best of me." He blocked an attack that tried to come at them from below, then sent a return blast along the mage's channel. "Tch," he muttered. "Missed the bastard again."

Erza nodded and Re-Quipped her armor once more, swapping in her _Ice-Empress_ armor. The moon's light glittered on the blue-white metal, her brilliant scimitar, and reflected off the armor's golden trim. She took a moment to look around herself with pursed lips. _Any Ice wizard worth his weight in w__ater__sh__ould know this armor __and be appropriately wary_. _Oh!_

"Gray, put up another sphere, quickly," she commanded. "We cannot win like this – but I know a way to do so."

Lucy let out a shriek as several dozen blades of ice flew towards her head. With blinding speed, Erza blocked them with her blade, the sword flashing as it reduced the blades of ice to nothingness. The celestial mage dodged towards the ground while Gray sent a return blast of icy spears screaming in the direction the attack had originated.

"Erza, not the best time for a blind defense," Gray noted, eyes calmly scanning the forest. "We're already in a bit of a bind. Lucy nearly lost her head there."

"It is." Erza injected some steel into voice and gave her comrade a pointed stare."Now do it."

While visibly uncomfortable with the suggestion, Gray followed her command. "_Ice-Make: Sphere!_" Soon they were surrounded by ice and briefly cut off from the enemy. Erza wasted little time.

"Gray, the moment he hits your ice barrier, let me know and I'll reinforce it. He likes hitting in waves, so after the first one is ended and between the second wave, you will need to shatter the sphere outwards and send as many sharpened pieces in as many directions as possible."

Erza turned to Lucy. "After that, I'll switch to my flame empress armor and melt the remaining ice, sending a second multi-directional attack into the woods. Lucy, you will then use the resulting water to summon Aquarius and have her unleash her strongest attack."

Quieting for a moment, Erza looked at both of her fellow mages, steely eyed. Lucy shivered while Gray stared unblinking. "Then we keep moving until we reach Warrod-sama. There is no time for second guessing." The ground rumbled beneath their feet and the sound of snapping trees reached them through the Ice-Sphere's thick walls. "Here it comes."

A horrifyingly powerful triple-layered blast of ice came screaming in from all sides of the ice sphere. Erza grit her teeth. "Go!"

It all happened in a blur. Erza used every ounce of power in her armor to reinforce Gray's sphere and stopped the enemy's attack cold. As she Re-Quipped into her Flame-Empress regalia, Gray shifted his stance and cried out, "_Ice-Make: Hail of Daggers!_" The sphere and surrounding ice shattered, becoming a deadly hail that blasted through the enemy's next wave and deep into the forest. The sound of breaking limbs and trunks of trees resonated through the forest.

"_Flame-Slash!_" Erza cried out. Fire leaped from her sword, turning flash steaming the remaining ice into water. The flames continued into the forest, setting the toppled trees on fire and further distracting the enemy mage. It was now or never. "Lucy, hurry!"

Lucy scrambled as the water fell from the melted ice and swiped her key in it with a shout. "_Gate of the Water Bearer: Open!_" Only, Lucy missed the water. She had swiped her summoning key in steam.

Erza felt a cold chill run down her back as Lucy's eyes widened in horror. This was not going according to plan. The Celestial mage had to summon that spirit!

Her head swiveling desperately, Lucy let out a strangled cry and dove at a nearby puddle of muddy water. Shoving the key deep into it with a wet squelch she finally summoned her spirit. "_Gate of the Water Bearer: Open!_"

With a flash of light, a mermaid being wearing a bikini top and a cruel smile faded into existence. "Ho-ho-ho," it said, wiping a splatter of mud away from one eye.

Lucy gulped as Gray simply closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. Erza raised an eyebrow.

"Aquarias-san," Lucy whimpered, "Please punish me with your strongest attack."

Aquarius' smile grew wider. "Luuu-cyyy," the spirit cooed. "For summoning me in a puddle of mud, I won't just punish you. I'll _kill_ you. I'll kill _all_ of you!" A torrent of summoned water blasted the mages, shoving them through the forest at breakneck speed – and away from their enemy.

* * *

Warrod's breathing had begun to slow. He had tapped into his life's essence in order to reinforce his spell and it was beginning to take a toll. How Mavis had ever contended with the powerful dark mage Warrod would never know. It was taking his own life just to keep him in check, and Zeref had yet to unleash his full power. _I won't be able to go with the __young fairies_, Warrod thought grimly. _But I will be damned if I let this man follow!_

A scent of smoke and blood filled his nostrils as he heard the two dragon slayers land behind him. "Warrod-sama, hold still as I reinforce you," the little blue-haired one said, placing her glowing hands a short distance from his back. Strength flowed into Warrod's limbs and cleared his mind. "Natsu-san, please keep a watch for the others."

Natsu punched his right fist into his palm, wincing for a brief moment. "You've got it, Wendy! Happy, Carla, let's form a three- pointed ring with you guys in the air." A chorus of acknowledgments followed.

As the pink-haired man moved out of Warrod's eyesight the elder mage considered his next move. Looking at Natsu's state, Warrod knew that his decision to call them all back was the correct one. He could feel through the plants that Natsu's enemy was considerably less damaged and closing in on their position – and fast. Meanwhile, the other foes from earlier had neared considerably and would soon enter the fray. The faeries were outmatched and outgunned, and it would only get worse with time.

A rumble on his left and a flash of magic in the plants came from Warrod's left. Warrod's eyes widened as the cause soon came into view and the wood mage quickly rooted his feet to the ground. A gigantic tidal wave of water was spilling from the forest, crashing into the hot-spring and flooding the surrounding area. Warrod heard Natsu give a cry of joy just before their bodies were hit and battered by the deluge.

The sound of several muttered coughs came from behind Warrod's back. "Wendy," the wood mage rasped, feeling this throat rip under the strain of his own voice as he uprooted his feet, "is everyone present?"

The flow of magic from Wendy lessened for a moment. "Yes, Warrod-sama." A slight pause. "They're wet, but seem to be okay. Natsu-san is checking them to make sure." A second pause. "Natsu-san! Please stop pushing Gray's head deeper into that puddle of water!"

A shudder ran through Warrod's body. There wasn't much left in him, even with the small one's support. He was short on time. "Mages of Fairy Tail, gather around me and hold hands. It is time for me to begin the spell." He took a deep breath. "Close the circle only when I remove my hands from the barrier and channel your energy into my body."

As they moved around him, jostling for position, he could hear crashing noises coming from all sides. The ones the mages had been fighting were making their move, and their comrades were moments away. _Forgive me, Mavis, for ending your plan. An old man's regrets increase even upon death's doormat_. "No matter how much time may pass, the markings of the guild and your bonds with your comrades will see you through. Remember that."

Warrod ripped his arms from the barrier with a savage cry and stepped backwards, leaving his hands trapped within the barrier. Natsu closed the gap and came to stand before Warrod's shuddering body, holding tightly to Erza and Gray. Gray held one of Happy's paws while Erza gripped Carla's tightly, and they in turn joined hands with Lucy and Wendy.

Warrod felt their energy flow into him, providing the power to unleash one of Fairy Tail's three great magics. "_Fairy Sphere!_"

The spell began to activate, flashing into existence just as his wooden barrier broke under Zeref's might. It's holy glow suffused the area, bathing the land in a white light that clashed with Zeref's dark might. Yet even as the spell activated Warrod sensed that something was wrong. There was a mesh of energies that shouldn't be happening, threatening to undo his spell before it could be complete.

Zeref's dark magic and the power of his cursed minions churned against Fairy Tail's holy power. They attacked the essence of the spell, seeking to undo it's most basic components. Warrod focused his mind, willing the energies to hold and forcing them along their proper paths. Then a third force interfered.

Celestial magic began to leak into _Fairy Sphere _from the blonde, warping the energies involved. As Fairy Tail's magic of light and Zeref's magic of dark struggled for dominance, the Celestial magic transformed the spell and its intended function. Multidimensional energies joined with the spells space-time matrix, creating something new and unknown. Warrod lost control of the spell.

As the spell activated and darkness took his eyes, Warrod knew that something had gone wrong beyond his power to fix. He had failed his fellow Fairies. He had failed the world. He had failed Mavis. Then the darkness took him.

* * *

Natsu awoke to a black starry sky. A shudder of pain tore through him as he opened his eyes, threatening to send him back to oblivion; several of his wounds had worsened. As his sight began to fail again, he heard the voices of two young girls and a young boy, raised and high. Something was wrong.

Slowly, Natsu stood up and the pain began to recede. He could still hear the voices of the two girls and some others in the distance. He was in another forest, although this one was more open and less dense than the one by Warrod's house was moments ago. Natsu sniffed the air. It smelled different too, with the odors of different plants and animals mixed in with other, more metallic smells that Natsu had never encountered in his life.

Then a burst of dark magic washed over him from the direction of the voices and Natsu sensed the presence of Zeref. A shot of adrenaline hit his body and sent the pain away. He then set off on a quick pace to join the distant fight.

**N****ext ****T****ime ****i****n **_**F**__**airies of **__**N**__**egima**_**:** Asuna and Setsuna fight; Evangeline laughs at life; and Natsu meets a psychopath in the forest.

A/N: For those interested, this story starts in chapters 46-48 of Negima and 355 of Fairy Tail.

As my story progresses within the Negima universe, I'll try to incorporate any powers/developments from Fairy Tail's manga that seem to make sense for the characters I have taken. I've got most of the story plotted out and I've built in some plausible safety valves just in case. Additionally, UQ Holder and anything attached to it will not exist for the purposes of this story – period.

Other than these items, that's all for now folks.

Until next time,

Elsil


	2. Chapter 2: The Trials of Natsu

**Disclaimer:** The following story is a fan made work of fiction. _Fairy Tail_ and _Mahou Sensei Negima!_ are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.

**Chapter 2**

**The Trials of Natsu**

Asuna cried out as a demon's weapon tore into her left shoulder. The horrid being's pig-like snout, curved in ecstasy, snarling in joy as a drop of blood entered its mouth. "Get off of me, you sick monster!" A blow from her fan sent the creature into oblivion. "That's right – back off sucker!"

Tough words aside, Asuna felt worn out. Breathing hard after her last blow, Asuna stumbled backwards in the pool of shallow water. She caught a glimpse of Setsuna's sword as it slashed out to her left, decapitating a second nearby demon. The creature's body disappeared as its summoning spell was broken by the Shinmei-Ryu swordswoman. Setsuna was breathing heavily, with a wide-eyed look on her face mirroring what Asuna figured was on her own.

"Setsuna, what happened?" Asuna muttered, splitting her attention between her partner and their enemies. "Just moments ago we were beating these guys easily. Heck, they were chasing me around like a bunch of perverted idiots! But now? It's like someone turned a spigot or something that dried up all their words and gave them a power boost."

Setsuna closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them with an icy gaze. The black-haired girl had taken a greater brunt of the fighting but bore fewer wounds on her body. "I do not know, Asuna-san. I felt some sort of resonance shortly before the change occurred. Whatever this resonance was caused by, perhaps it has had an effect on our opponents." She swiped a sleeve across her sweaty face, grimacing at the blood and dirt staining the once white fabric. "Although I feel unchanged, which is most curious."

Asuna felt her brain stutter to a halt. "Um... huh?" The black-haired girl looked over at her and sighed.

"Asuna," she began. "The term resonance has a variety of meanings when used to describe a magical effect. To spare you the details, I believe that in this instance some other person, or force, has interacted and resonated with the demons' basic nature, thus changing the will of our opponents and stimulating a change in behavior that you and I are now experiencing."

Asuna's eyes squinted as she thought about it. She shrugged after a few seconds. "Still don't get it," Asuna muttered, "but basically, something happened and now they're different, right?"

Setsuna nodded. "And it seems that whatever effect the resonance truly had, it has also made the demons more powerful as well."

The red-head slapped her forehead with her free hand at that revelation. "Great. Just what we need; on top of some crazy sorceress kidnapping Konoka, a super-powerful little emo boy and Negi leaving us to go rescue Konoka from the emo boy, we now have a bunch of powered-up demons that want to kill us!" She threw her hands into the air. "Fantastic!"

Feeling a sudden need to take out her pent-up aggression, Asuna angrily pointed her fan at one of the demons, not liking the way it's mouth was leaking drool as it stared. "Hey, spit-face, I see you looking at me. You want a piece of this? You want my blood and flesh? Well come and get it, sucker!"

Spit-face grinned nastily. Sharp yellow tusks jutted out from cracked lips as bloody rivulets joined the drool. _Oh, gross_, Asuna thought as it began to move towards her position. _Why'd I have to go and pick that one? He looks like Chamo's inner self!_

The demons charged the two girls in silence. Asuna and Setsuna met the horde with a charge of their own, driving deep into their ranks with furious slashes of their weapons. Asuna caught spit-face under his jaw with her fan, nullifying his power and sending him back to whatever demonic plane it called home. Setsuna covered her flanks, Shinmei-Ryu blade cutting deep into the bodies of their foes.

Asuna slammed her fan into a demon's chest with a powerful downward blow, drawing a silent roar of pain from its lips as the creature disappeared. Continuing the downward strike and gaining momentum Asuna whipped her fan to the right, batting away another demon's club and crashing it into the thigh of a third. Even with the strange change and their new power-up, Asuna's power ripped through them.

Cut off from Asuna by a short and bony demon, Setsuna stabbed her sword through its throat and twisted. The creature died with a brief gurgle but left its opponent hissing in anger. Setsuna's blade had snapped off halfway up its length. The bony monster had managed to grip her sword with a powerful claw right before her twist, causing the metal to bend and snap under their combined force.

Abandoning the broken blade, Setsuna drew out the card she had made with Negi just minutes ago. "_Adeat._" A small wakizashi formed in both of her hands while fourteen more hung in the air. With a wordless cry of rage, Setsuna sent the encircling blades zipping into the crowd of demons as she rejoined Asuna. Together they fought in a mindless fury, dodging blows and cutting down their foes. Yet more demons would always come into view and they kept getting more powerful.

"Setsuna, we need to make a break for the forest," Asuna yelled as she smashed another demon across the back of its legs. "We'll get creamed if we stay down here much longer." Setsuna nodded in assent, stabbing her dual blades into the armpits of a short, masked demon that promptly disappeared.

Between their artifacts and righteous anger, the two young girls pushed their way through the crowd. They made it to the forest's edge in under a minute, with Asuna only a few short steps away from its raised embankment when a cry rang out from Setsuna.

Turning around, Asuna saw that a demon had locked its massive sword with Setsuna's two wakizashi, pinning her hands and forcing the far smaller girl to the ground. Barely keeping her eyes and mouth above the ankle deep water, Setsuna was snarling and trying to push back the much bigger demon. Her struggles were in vain as the large demon merely compensated with its greater weight. With a savage smile, it reached a hand to its filthy belt and drew out a curved dagger. "_Setsuna_," Asuna yelled as she dashed back to her friend, "Get away from her, you great bloody -"

With a bellowing roar, a massive blast of fire shot out of the forest and swept across the demon's upper body. For the first time since the resonance had taken place, one of the monsters released an anguished scream of pained fury. It flung itself into the water, rolling over and over as it screamed.

Asuna stared at the monster in macabre fascination, unnerved by this second change. The monsters had remained silent when she and Setsuna had hit them, but the moment these flames struck it the beast had screamed. "What are you made of," the girl whispered to the fire.

"Asuna-san, behind you!"

Setsuna's voice snapped Asuna back to reality. Looking over her shoulder, Asuna flung herself down as another gout of fire followed the first. This one swept across the water's surface, striking deep into the demonic horde. Every remaining demon was set alight and the monsters unleashed a horrifying chorus of screams. More blasts of flame followed the first two. Asuna kept her body buried in the warming water, hoping that Setsuna was doing the same, as her former foes wailed in agony.

By the time Asuna felt the flames recede and moved her head back up, the demons had gone silent. Slowly, both she and Setsuna stood up as they surveyed the damage. Nothing remained of the demons but motes of fine ash drifting through the night. Asuna touched one mote with her fingers; it broke apart instantly and without a trace. Her throat clogged as she caught Setsuna's eye, an unspoken question in both of their eyes. What sort of sorcerer was capable of such a thing... and were they on Negi's side?

The orange haired girl couldn't even begin to comprehend the power needed to cause such devastation. The world of magic was truly a great and terrible place. Asuna opened her mouth to say mention this when she saw Setsuna's face turn red. The other girl raised a shaking hand, pointing at a spot behind Asuna's back. Dreading what she would see, Asuna turned her head and felt her heart stop.

Standing in front of her was a grinning, pink-haired young man. Holding one arm out with a flaming thumb-up for victory, fire spewed from his mouth as a crown of smoke threaded its way through his pink hair. However, that was not what caused her heart to stop.

Except for a scaly white scarf around his neck, the guy was naked. Naked as the day he was born. As she stood frozen, Asuna thought faintly to herself that she could see everything. A soft wind blew. What a sight it was to behold.

* * *

Natsu grinned at the two girls in front of him. They seemed to be alright, although the dark-haired one did look a little bloody and the bell wearing chick looked a little faint. "Pretty awesome, right?" Natsu beamed. "My name is Natsu. Could you help me out and tell me where my friends are?" When neither of them answered him, Natsu scratched his head and frowned. "Oi, oi! You listening? No?" Maybe they were in shock.

Stopping the flow of fire to his mouth and fists, Natsu hopped a little closer to their position. The orange-haired one's face went pale as a ghost, so he turned to the dark-haired girl. Despite her wide eyes, the way she held her weapons made him nod in approval. She was definitely the more experienced of the two female mages.

"Let's try this again," the dragon slayer said slowly. "My name is Natsu and I just kicked some ass. Nice to meet ya!" He stuck out his hand to her and brought back his smile. "Come on, just shake my hand already. I promise not to bite ya too!"

After a silent moment the dark-haired girl dematerialized one of her swords and timidly shook his hand. "There," Natsu beamed at her, "was that so hard?"

With bright red cheeks, she pointed down to his waist with her free hand. Natsu frowned. Out of curiosity, he looked down and saw his junk hanging freely in the night's soft breeze.

Natsu first thought that it explained why he felt so limber despite his injured ribs. His second was quickly verbalized."_Ehhhhhh!_" Natsu screamed in shock.

Dropping the chick's hand and hiding his shame, Natsu took off running like a bat out of hell. "I'm not like Lucy, I'm not like Gray, I'm not like Lucy, I'm not like Gray," Natsu yelled as he streaked away from the two girls he had saved just moments ago, running along the edge of the strange forest. "Where did my pants go? Ah! I left them in the old geezer's house. Dammit you old bastard, why couldn't you let me dress first?" Natsu desperately looked around for something he could use to clothe himself and saw absolutely nothing. "Where's that gorilla spirit when you need her! Clothes, I want _clothes_!"

There was nothing on the forest's edge, and the clothes those demons had been wearing were either ash or dissolved particles of magic. Natsu's face scrunched up in thought. This meant desperate measures, and luckily, he spotted some tightly bunched bushes with rather full looking leaves a short ways into the forest.

A light went off in his head; maybe he could string them together into primitive underwear like he had seen Gray do on a couple of missions. Repeating his mantra at the top of his lungs, Natsu sped for the bush and jumped into it at full force.

As he slammed into the ground with crashing thud, several things immediately occurred to Natsu. First, bushes in the wilderness didn't usually have wooden frames and wire for camouflage on them. Second, the ground behind the bush wasn't as hard as it should have been; it was actually quite soft and squishy. Third and most importantly, he could feel something hard and metallic jabbing into an area that was never meant to have something hard and metallic shoved into it.

All of these things signified that Natsu had made a horrible mistake. He slowly raised his head from the pair of soft, fleshy mounds in front of him – those were what had broken his fall – and looked into a pair of furious, unblinking eyes set within a dark-skinned face. "Hi?" He squeaked. The impact of an explosion sent him rocketing out of the bushes, yelling at the top of his lungs once again – albeit for very different reasons.

With tears streaming from his eyes Natsu ran as hard and fast as his body could manage. He heard the crashing sound as the woman threw away her camouflage set and chased after him, probably still wielding one of those shooting things that Alzack and Bisca used in their magic. He needed distance. The pain radiating from his lower body told him that it was a bad idea to stay anywhere in the girl's vicinity. A blast that blew apart an entire trunk to his left made him turn on his fiery afterburners.

Losing his pursuer after minutes of running, with shots ringing out behind him for far too long, Natsu stopped for a moment and tried to gather his bearings. Looking around, he couldn't see anything useful or dangerous nearby, but even with that strange column of light it was too dark to tell. He tested the air, only to wrinkle his nose in confusion. Too many unfamiliar smells were present; he couldn't tell what most of them signified.

Without his eyes or nose, that meant he would have to rely on his ears to move about the forest. Natsu closed his eyes, concentrating on making sense of the night's sound

Some sounds made sense immediately. "I can hear fighting to the North," Natsu muttered softly to himself. "Nothing to the South, and both the East and West have some sort of weird, vrooming noise." Natsu paused a moment and considered his options. He also scratched himself in a way that would have garnered a slap from Lucy.

Silence to the south meant either wilderness or those who hunted him and he wanted neither. The weird noises to the east and west were completely unknown to him. Which left him with the north and the sounds of battle, something that was completely familiar. "Easy choice," Natsu said happily. "Now I just need to avoid those two girls and I'll be good."

He moved past a particularly large tree and halted. "Or I could find another girl, wielding a sword. That could happen too," he grumbled. Ordinarily he would never turn down a good fight, but at the moment he was naked. Doing something in Gray's style was to be avoided at any cost until it came up and bashed him in the head.

Natsu covered his privates with one hand and waved at the new girl with his remaining hand. Her spectacles and hair made her look a little like Laki from the guild. The way she held her sword, however, did not resemble Laki in the slightest.

Despite his better instincts, Natsu took a deep breath and tried to communicate with this strange new girl. "Hey, I'm Natsu," he began again. "I'm a little lost and was hoping that you could do me a favor. I can't find my friends and -" Natsu barely stopped the sword a finger's width from his left eye while the girl screamed something at him in a language he didn't understand. A few strands of pink hair drifted in the breeze._ Ah well, at least I tried_, Natsu thought to himself as he kicked her in the face.

* * *

Asuna stared in shock at the young man as he ran up the slope and into the forest. Her mind had gone numb. How could such a powerful sorcerer be so completely stupid as to forget his clothes? The young man hadn't said anything she could understand, but his reaction to Setsuna's gesture was unmistakable. Asuna swore to herself that she would never let Negi grow into such a wizard. Then Asuna's numb mind did a double flip – why was she thinking about a future with the brat? Asuna shook her head. Why did it feel so personal as well?

The naked fire mage stopped running along the forest's edge and disappeared into pile of bushes, still yelling at the top of his lungs. She couldn't make out most of what he was saying, but the words 'Gray' and 'Lucy' kept repeating. They sounded like western names she had heard from a couple of American and British television shows. Asuna looked over at Setsuna who still had her hand stretched out while muttering something to herself with a mortified face and a crazed look in her eyes. Her free hand was making some sort of gripping motion, as the hand bearing the short sword tightened until her knuckles stood white upon her skin. Asuna quickly looked back at the bushes in which the man had disappeared.

Just in time. Another scream ripped across the night air as the pink-haired man came flying back out, chased by two dark shapes. _Wait_, Asuna thought, _is that Ku Fei chasing him_? _And __Mana?_

"Ku Fei! Mana! What are you guys doing here?" Asuna yelled. Her two classmates ignored the orange-head and kept chasing the strange man. Asuna raised her hands to wave and call out again before dropping them. Some things could wait until later, and it wasn't as though a naked person running around in plain sight was anything new for Mahora.

Asuna slapped her cheeks with both hands. "Alright Setsuna, snap out of it," she said, hefting her fan as insurance. "We've still got to back-up Negi and save Konoka." With a strangled yelp of '_Ojou-sama_' and a new series of red spots on her cheeks, Setsuna stopped her muttering and looked slightly less crazed.

"Y-y-yes, Asuna-san. You are right. We should hurry as well," the other girl stuttered. Asuna barely caught her muttered, "Even if my body and mind are no longer pure for Ojou-sama."

Asuna shrugged. It wasn't any of her business to ask so long as it didn't stop them from rescuing Konoka and saving Negi.

* * *

Natsu was enjoying himself in this fight. Unlike that bastard he had been fighting before Warrod cast _Fairy Sphere_, this girl didn't use any tricks. It was swordsmanship and magical skill versus fists and fiery blasts. A straight-up, who could stand longer, hack, slash, and bash battle.

Blocking yet another slash of her sword with a blazing left fist, Natsu slammed his right elbow into her stomach. "_Fire Dragon's Elbow!_" The blast sent the glasses chick rocketing through the forest with her clothes ablaze as Natsu held his arm gingerly. He still hadn't fully recovered from his first battle, and he kept forgetting that his body wasn't in perfect condition.

She recovered quickly, stabbing her sword into the ground and planting her feet onto the trunk of the tree as her dress swirled around her legs. Raising her eyes, the girl jumped forward at him with her sword extended in a simple thrust. Natsu slammed his hands together just before she reached his position. "_Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!_"

A flash of fire roared out from the point where both his hands met, hitting the small figure in front of him and blocking her body from his vision. As the smoke hung in the air and several trees burned merrily, Natsu blinked wiped one hand across his face to get the sweat out off of it. "Phew." He muttered, "Maybe that one got her?"

The tingle on the back of his neck was his only warning. Dropping to all fours, Natsu rolled to his left and came up with a spinning jump kick. He had dodged her downward blow but she in turn blocked his flaming kick with the flat of her sword. The two combatants jumped back after exchanging a series of quick attacks and counterattacks, staring at one another through the smoke of Natsu's rampaging flames. The girl said a few words to him and gestured to his midriff. Then she sneered.

Suddenly uncomfortable, Natsu backed away a little. Some things needed no translation. "Oi, no need to go threatening some guy's junk even if he's pulling a Gray," Natsu called out to his opponent. "I didn't even do anything to you."

Snorting, the girl seemed to get the message. Taking one hand off of her sword's handle, she fished around in a pocket conveniently located somewhere in her dress. Natsu blinked. He'd completely missed them they blended in so well. After a few seconds of searching, the girl pulled out some sort of paper talisman and placed it on her forehead. "Say something before I gut you, you uncouth dog. Even perverts deserve their final words."

Natsu blinked again. He had understood the girl's words! Finally, he was beginning to make some progress in this messed up time! But wait, did she still think he was a pervert? Damn Warrod and Zeref both!

He tried to explain. "It wasn't my choice! It's these old guys' fault that I'm naked!" The woman just stared at him. She didn't seem to understand his pain.

"See, I got attacked at a hot spring by this one old guy and a bunch of his dudes. Then another old guy cast a spell on my teammates and I, and I only had time to grab my scarf." The chick still just stared at him. Time for a different tactic.

"Anyway, why are you trying to neuter me?" Natsu yelled as he flung a hand in her direction. "I didn't do anything to you – you found me!" The girl just kept staring. Pissed, Natsu grabbed his hair and started pulling at it. "Stop looking at me like that, _dammit_! It's annoying!"

A dark, cutesy chuckle caught his attention. "Ignorance of your crime does not absolve your misdeed, not before Tsukuyomi. You shot fire at my senpai, tried to kill my senpai. And afterward -," her voice began to quiver with rage. "- you had the temerity, the utter _gall_, to proposition her with your body!"

The girl's eyes flashed, promising pain. "Senpai is mine and mine alone, and I will cut off your _balls_!" She punctuated the statement with a slash which shot some sort of strange energy at him. Natsu punched his left fist forward and released a torrent of sustained fire, shattering her attack and causing smoke to billow into the air.

Natsu was no longer having fun. Fighting was one thing, but maiming him for something that wasn't his fault just ticked him off. He called out, "Oi, you serious about this?"

A second slash came screaming in from the smoke of the first. Natsu blocked this attack as well. With a shrug of his shoulders the dragon slayer of fire waded into the smoke. It was good when enemies were consistent with their intentions.

As he blocked several more slashes with bursts of fire from his hands, Natsu grimaced. He couldn't get a bead on her in this forest. She was skilled enough to make things difficult for him, always attacking from a blind spot, and his injured body was moving slower than usual. He needed to use close quarters combat or a powerful finishing move to clear some of the trees and give him the advantage.

Natsu narrowed his eyes as the girl darted in close and took the choice out of his hands. She tried to feint at his head and then separate him at the midriff. Seeing through the move, Natsu let the two blows slide past him. He then clamped his hands down on the flat of the blade and lifted his right leg. His crushing kick to the center of her stomach made the girl's eyes bulge out as the breath whooshed from her lungs. Her grip on the blade slackened and she soon dropped to her knees.

Letting go of the blade with one hand, Natsu delivered a swift chop to the back of her neck. As good as she was, it seemed she had never fought a hand combat specialist able to grab her sword. She had a long way to go before she could reach Erza's level. The magical slip of paper fell off of her forehead.

He let her body fall to the forest's floor and dropped the sword beside her body. He stared at her for a long moment, waiting to see if she could get up and resume the fight. All she did was lie on the ground and twitch her hands every few seconds, signaling both consciousness and temporary paralysis.

Natsu bent over and replaced the strip of magical paper on her head so she could understand his words. "Fight me again when you are stronger and I have some clothes on." Natsu straightened his back and took a step away from the girl. "We can settle things then."

With one last look at the twitching girl behind him, Natsu turned away and resumed his march northward. Only to quickly come face to face with a very large, very angry, and very singed bear that immediately bit down on his bad arm.

* * *

The next day, Asuna hummed happily to herself as she wandered the halls of Konoka's family mansion. It was the morning after the battle to rescue Konoka and the events of last night were fading fast in her mind. Happily so, she thought to herself.

Shortly after that unnerving fight with the demons and meeting the naked pinkette, she and Setsuna were summoned by Negi to the great Altar upon which Konoka was bound. The two ministra joined with him to engage the mysterious Fate and his partner in crime, the eastern sorceress Chigusa, in battle. The struggle went well for a time, as Negi managed to trap Fate with a spell of binding while Asuna banished Chigusa's spirit summons. Taking advantage of the confusion, Setsuna had revealed her demonic heritage and used her angelic wings to swoop in and grab her sworn lord.

Things then took a turn for the worse. As Setsuna flew off with Konoka, Asuna and Negi battled Fate while a giant demon woke from its slumber beside them. The emo looking villain had had them on the ropes before an even greater evil stepped interfered: the Dark Evangel, temporarily freed from her prison. Without Evangeline's timely intervention, Asuna was certain that she and Negi would have been finished. Yet it had happened, everyone had survived, and Asuna sang merrily while skipping to see her friends the very next day.

As she skipped out of the hallway and into the open section of the mansion nearby the garden and forest, Asuna couldn't help but laugh. She had defied demons, escaped a pink-haired pervert, fought a sorceress bent on revenge, rescued a damsel in distress and defied a being of frightening power straight to his face. All things taken, that had to be considered a rousing success.

"It's a brand new day," she sang. "And the sun is high! All the birds are singing that I'm -" A whiff of cooked lard caught her attention, breaking off her singing. "Ooh, someone's making breakfast! Maybe it's whoever taught Konoka how to cook! Mmm... food." Asuna giggled in delight, the twin bells in her hair jingling as she bounced up and down in excitement.

Before she could run off towards the dining area, a dark skinned hand appeared from behind a nearby hedge and caught Asuna's attention. She hopped off of the walkway and walked over. Popping her head over the hedge's side, Asuna saw Ku Fei sitting cross-legged on a comfortable looking blanket. She was digging into a plate of meaty stew, the smell of which made Asuna's mouth water. "It's not Konoka's style, but Mana-sans' cooking is really good. You should try some meat-aru!"

Asuna smiled as she twisted her head and looked around. She spotted a nearby pathway and followed it, eventually arriving at Ku's blanket where she sat down, smoothing her skirt as she did. "Thanks Ku Fei!" Asuna grabbed the plate of stew and cutlery that Ku Fei passed along. "Itadakimasu!"

As Asuna dug in, Ku took a drink out of a cup filled with water. Birds were chirping in nearby tree and Ku Fei made for surprisingly fun company. Asuna tried to find out why her classmate had been in the woods before, but just hung her head when Ku began blabbering on about powerful enemies and destined meetings between foes. Asuna looked around and didn't see Mana anywhere. Hopefully the quiet girl would come back sometime soon so Asuna could get a more detailed explanation.

Asuna finished the plate of stew, mopping up a little bit of the remaining juices with a piece of bread. She wiped her mouth a napkin and pushed the empty plate towards on the blanket's side. "Thanks for the meal, Ku Fei. That was delicious!" Asuna clapped her hands together. "What was it made with?"

Ku gave a slight shrug. "Nothing special, except for meat. Mana and I gathered the ingredients last night-aru as we hunted the foe that attacked Mana. We were really lucky-aru! This is a once in a lifetime meal here in Japan."

Hearing those words caused Asuna nodded. Special meat would make all the different. A terrifying thought occurred to Asuana, prompting a quick gag. "Ku Fei," she squeaked, "Are you telling me that this came from a hu-hu-human being? Did you and Mana skin him alive and cook his remains?" Asuna looked at her hands. "Oh God, I just became a cannibal didn't I?"

Tears fell from Asuna's eyes. Her sunny future from minutes ago had suddenly turned into a grey dystopia behind iron bars. Why had she chosen to sing that particular song? "I'm not ready for prison life!" She wailed.

Across from the sobbing Asuna, Ku Fei cocked her head to the side and studied her classmate. "Asuna-san," she finally said, "do you mean that guy over there?" Ku Fei pointed to a hedge close to the one Asuna had poked her head over. "He's fine-aru. Just beat up."

Asuna stopped sobbing long enough to take a look in the direction Ku Fei was pointing. Unconscious and hanging from a rather thick pole was the pink-haired man from the night before. No longer naked, he was now wrapped in a bearskin robe, bandages, and that ridiculous white scarf. "The bear he killed was delicious-aru." Ku Fei continued. "Mana-san and I were happy to run across both of them at once."

Asuna's tears turned to joy as she sobbed. "Yes! Praise be to Takahata! Our marriage is saved!" Asuna flung herself onto her Chinese classmate, scattering bowls and cutlery everywhere in her haste. "Thank you Ku Fei, thank you!" Ku Fei just patted Asuna back with a confused look on her face.

Later, after Asuna had calmed down, she studied the pink-haired man more closely. "So, Ku Fei. Do you or Mana have any idea what this guy was doing out in the woods last night?"

Ku Fei shook her head. "He didn't speak Japanese-aru. Mana-san and I tried a bunch of other languages too, but he didn't seem to-aru know any of them." The Chinese martial artist took another drink from her glass of water. "Mana-san was hoping to speak with Negi-bouzu about a spell of translation. I think."

Asuna nodded but then looked at Ku Fei quizzically. "Wait, so the two of you really do know about Negi's powers as well? Setsuna didn't seem all that surprised at seeing the two of you, but I never had time to ask her about it. How did you find out?"

Ku Fei smiled. "Mana-san is a famous magical mercenary who has traveled the globe-aru. She's teamed up with Setsuna a couple of times from what I learned last night and is one of my favorite sparring partners." Ku Fei then shrugged. "If you want to know more-aru, you'd have to ask Mana-san yourself. But if you want to speak with pinky, we need Negi-bouzu's magic."

The two sat in silence for a short time as Asuna absorbed Ku Fei's words. Asuna looked at the pinkette. She really was curious about him and why he had saved her, even if he was a bit dumb. That meant she would have to find that annoying teacher of hers before Evangeline kidnapped him for the day, probably explaining Ku Fei and Mana's situation to him while she was at it. That would be annoying.

Curiosity eventually beat out annoyance. Asuna stood up and brushed her skirt. "I'll be back with Negi in a minute Ku Fei. Just keep that sleepy guy here until we get back." Ku Fei acknowledged Asuna's words and waved as the orange-hair departed.

It took Asuna almost no time to locate Negi, but longer to explain the situation and pry him away from Eva's clutches. The small vampire was rather animated about being able to freely move about for the first time in a decade and declared that naked pink-haired men had little interest for her. She refused to budge no matter what Asuna offered.

Thankfully, it seemed that Negi was impressed enough by both her description of the man's magical abilities and her desperate pleading that he managed to overrule Eva. The three then followed Asuna to his location, Eva doing so rather sullenly. Asuna would take what she could get.

* * *

Along the way to Ku Fei the group picked up Setsuna and Konoka, stopping the first from trying to run away from everyone over some silly reason. Asuna had yelled, Negi and Konoka cried, Setsuna cried with them, and Eva hid her face behind her eyes and just muttered about stupidity. Then it had ended and they resumed their original mission.

In short order, the five of them, Ku Fei, a returned Mana, and Chachamaru were standing in front of the still unconscious pink-haired man.

Negi walked up to the much larger man and nervously rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know how you learned of my secret, Tatsumiya-san, but what did you and Ku Fei-san do to keep him unconscious for this long?"

Stepping up beside him, Mana drew one of her pistols and popped out a shell that she passed to the diminutive teacher. "We came upon him after he had just killed a rather large forest bear. I took advantage of this distraction to shoot him with several high-powered sleeping bullets while Ku Fei engaged him in hand to hand combat." Mana gave a grim smile. "He was remarkably durable, so I had to hit him with four clips worth."

She then gave a shrug as her expression faded back to normal. "I had surmised your powers due to your last name and place of origin. Everyone in the magical world knows of your father, and I have traveled the world extensively. But Ku Fei new nothing until last night; she is a newcomer to our world."

Negi blushed crimson as she turned the shell over in his hands, feeling out the magic it contained. It seemed that his father's fame kept appearing in unexpected places. "Thank you for keeping my secret, Tatsumiya-san, Ku Fei-san."

Once Negi had a good idea on how to counter the sleep magic, he handed the shell back to Mana and placed his hand on the other man's head. The spells within her bullets were potent, and she had hit the man with quite a few. The man also possessed an incredibly high natural resistance to magic, beyond anything Negi had ever encountered. The young mage took a deep breath and reached into the depths of his magic.

He shaped and molded his it into a powerful spell of wakefulness, tuning it to the energy signature of Mana's bullets. Negi Felt Eva's eyes on him, evaluating his skill to deal with this challenge. He would demonstrate it.

Negi chanted softly. "_Ras Tel Ma Scir. Magister: Excita!_" With an exclamation at the end, he released the pent up energy and let it flow into the sleeping man before him. As the man's eyes began to gently flutter open, Negi pumped a small fist in victory. It was short lived.

"Te reinga He aha te tika tupu? Homai ki ahau toku kakahu kua!" The man had just woken up and was squawking like a blue jay with its tail-feathers on fire. "Hoki puku! Toku ringa. He aha I meatia e koe ki toku ringa? Te mamae te! Kia ahau ki raro, koutou whakatara. _Kah!_"

Negi covered his ears and fell onto his backside while the girls around him had similar reactions. The man had a pair of lungs on him like a dragon! How could he possibly scream that loud?

The man probably would have continued yelling like a madman if Asuna hadn't walked up to him and slapped him with her pactio generated fan. "_Shaddup!_"

That seemed to slow him down for a moment. The pink-haired man had narrowed his eyes and had chosen to engage in a glaring match with Negi's most violent student. She was returning the look with interest, waving her fan under the man's nose as she gave him a stern lecture.

It took several minutes before Asuna's lecture came to an end, as the entire group stood behind her with varying looks of pity and annoyance on their faces. Ku Fei looked sorry for the poor man, while beside her Mana and Chachamaru just looked on with emotionless interest.

Setsuna was blushing for some reason that Negi couldn't discern while Konoka clung to Setsuna's left arm and hummed happily. Meanwhile, the tiny vampire was staring at Negi. More specifically, she seemed to be staring at his neck. Negi shifted nervously while he drew up the collar of his shirt. Maybe he hadn't done as well with the spell as he thought. He would need to redeem himself, and do it quickly.

As Asuna's tirade began to wind down, Negi stood up and cast his second spell. "_Ras Tel Ma Scir. Magister: Omnia Verba Loqui!_" A look of surprise and comprehension came across the man's face as Asuna punctuated her speech with a muttered threat.

Negi dry washed his hands nervously as he stepped back to his original position by the man and began to unbind the man's hands. "Hello," he said. "My name is Negi Springfield, Magister Magi in-training, and these are my students." The man grunted as Negi used magic to zap the knots binding the man's feet. They were tough! "The ones who found you last night were Tatsimiya Mana-san – she's the tall one with dark skin – and Ku Fei-san – she's the short one with dark skin." Negi zapped the bindings holding the man's wrists while continuing his introduction.

"Setsuna-san and Konoka-san are the two dark-haired girls behind me. Beside them are Chachamaru-san – the tall girl with green hair – and Evangeline."

Negi paused as he thought how to describe her without incurring her wrath. "She's a powerful mage, and much older than she looks." Negi's ever present smile faded somewhat as he felt the air around him grow chill from Eva's magic. He really had somehow managed to annoy her after all.

"The girl next to me is Asuna-san." Negi bowed his head towards the man who was slowly rubbing his joints with both hands. "I apologize if you were hurt when my students tied you up or when Asuna-san hit you with her fan. They can be very excitable and Asuna-san is often violent. Please forgive their enthusiasm."

"_What?_"Asuna squeaked in a high pitched denial. Then promptly smashed her teacher with the fan still held in her hands. The pink-haired man and others simply watched the two go at it. Eventually, Asuna bashed her teacher to the ground and held up her fingers in a 'v' for victory. Negi shed a few tears as Asuna ground her foot into his back. The monster had ruined his image with someone else yet again.

Negi stood up once Asuna's wrath had passed and looked at the older man, coughed, and pointed. "Who are you?"

"My name's Natsu and I'm a wizard of Fairy Tail, Fiore's toughest guild," the man declared. "Nice to meet you, everyone!" The girls smiled back and said hello as Negi felt his ropes rise. It seemed that his guest's previous rant was not ordinary behavior. Negi should have known better. The moment the girls finished saying hello back, Natsu's expression changed completely.

He swiveled his head and shoved a finger towards Mana's face. "You!" He muttered, red-faced, "I'm sorry for what happened when I jumped in the bush, but I was just trying to find somewhere to hide from sword girl and the fan maniac over here." Natsu pointed at Setsuna and Asuna respectively before moving one hand to rub the side of his head. "Dammit, did you have to shoot me that many times? My head feels like I went on a drinking binge with a pal of mine and tried to match her barrel for barrel." Mana just smiled at him, causing Natsu's expression to grow more annoyed.

He then shoved his entire left hand at Ku Fei. "And you! My arm – my entire frickin arm – was bleeding from the damn animal whose body is hanging onto me! Next time, don't bash it like a damn volleyball. It feels like it's gonna fall off any second now. _Gah!_"

While Ku Fei merely pointed at herself in confusion, Konoka gasped and drew out her pactio card. "_Adeat._" This drew Natsu's attention over to her and Setsuna.

"Ah," he murmured, scratching his left cheek with one finger as the red in them deepened. "I'm sorry for being a little naked when I saved your asses from those demon guys."

Dressed in her pactio outfit, Konoka disentangled herself from Setsuna's arm and walked over to Natsu. With a murmured incantation she began to heal the strange boy who responded with a nod of thanks. "One of my friends likes doing that sorta thing, but I don't. So, well, sorry 'bout that. Again."

Negi studied his students' reactions. Mana's poker face was back to being unruffled while Ku Fei still wore a look of confusion. Setsuna was blushing again, although Negi understood why she would blush in this case. Asuna was merely muttering and gripping her fan tightly, but seemed to be holding her temper in check for the moment. A giant temper if Negi was any judge of the red in her cheeks. He moved a little further away from his roommate and closer to Eva. That was a mistake.

"Wahahaha!" The vampire's voice rang out hysterically, causing Negi to once again clap his hands over his ears. "You mean to say that you met most of these girls, and fought two of them, all while completely buck-ass naked?" Eva's cheerful smile grew wider at Natsu's shamed nod. The older boy seemed to sniff her, widening his eyes as he did.

"Oh Merciful God in Heaven, strike me down now."Eva prayed in joyous mockery. "Mine ears have been tainted with a perverse knowledge too good to be true." Everyone but Natsu looked up to the sky. Unfortunately, it was a clear day without a cloud in the sky.

Eva collapsed onto the ground where she proceeded to roll around in the dirt. "Chachamaru, please, please tell me that you recorded all of that – everyone's faces too. This is priceless. Stupidity on the level of the Thousand Master himself! _Oh, God, yes_!" She got up and hugged a frightened Asuna. "Oh, thank you for grabbing Negi and taking us here. This is wonderful, just wonderful."

Negi stared in consternation at his vampiric student. Sometimes she was cute and normal. Other times, she scared him to death. But now she just confused him and he didn't know what to do with her.

Coughing into one hand, Negi tried to ignore the now breathless undead mage as she dragged Asuna to the ground along with her and re-engaged Natsu. "So Natsu, where are Fairy Tail and Fiore located? I've never heard of them before." The older man's head snapped around so fast that the man gave a cry of pain. Konoka sighed and began to heal that as well.

Negi blinked. "Eh, did I say something wrong?"

* * *

Shoving Konoka away with a hasty cry of thanks, Natsu grabbed Negi by his shoulders. "What do you mean you've never heard of Fairy Tail or Fiore?" A desperate fear grabbed hold of Natsu's heart. "Aren't we in Fiore right now?"

The little mage in Natsu's hands rubbed the bridge of his nose nervously before answering. "I'm sorry Natsu, but you're currently located in Kyoto, a city in Japan." Natsu just stared at the little kid. "Um, it's in Asia, which is in the Old World?" Natsu blinked very slowly as he tried to process what was going on. Thoughts swirled around his head as he desperately tried to assimilate the information. Not Fiore, but the Old World. Some places called Kyoto and Japan. "Yo, Negi kid, one more question." He murmured. "What year is it right now?" The kid's smile returned. "That one is simple to answer. It's currently the year 2003 A.D."

Natsu released the kid and sat down with a horrified look on his face. He was no genius, but even he could see what had happened. He was no longer in Fiore, in a land where they had a completely different system of years, and he was all alone with no way to get back. It was time to panic. "Ahhh!_ Dammit Warrod, Zeref!_"

As flames blasted from his mouth into the sky above, everyone around him dove for cover. The only exception was the tiny mage who smelled of Zeref. She merely laughed, eventually passing out from lack of oxygen while the others forced Natsu back into unconsciousness.

**N****ext ****T****ime ****i****n **_**F**__**airies of **__**N**__**egima**_**:** Natsu rides a train and gets tortured by Haruna; Eva get's a bedtime surprise; and Chao receives a shock that she never saw coming.

A/N: The changes from the entrance of the Fairie's have begun but many have already happened (hint hint). All will explained in future chapters as the story progresses. Meanwhile, I've also updated the first chapter of these story along with this post and added to its A/N.

Many thanks to the awesome _**Raiyoukai**_ for agreeing to Beta this and future chapters!

Until next time,

Elsil


	3. Chapter 3: Welcome to Mahora

**Disclaimer:** The following story is a fan made work of fiction. _Fairy Tail_ and _Mahou Sensei Negima!_ are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.

**Chapter 3**

**Welcome to Mahora**

One day later, Natsu lay propped against the window of a train as it neared Mahora station. With his hands on his belly and shivers going down his spine, Natsu wondered if it was possible that Warrod's spell had transferred him to some kind of personal hell. Complete with its very own mistress of ceremonies.

"And this, Mr. Pinky, is my favorite manga," Haruna Saotome said with glee. "You can see how the artist's drew the body's proportion with extreme care. The lines and shading are superb yet incredibly minimalistic." Haruna shifted the seat next to Natsu as Yue and Nodoka looked on in silence. Natsu had begged them for hours with his eyes to intervene, but other than an offer of juice, neither had lifted a finger in his defense. He didn't really like them anymore.

"Okay, look at this chapter here and at this scene in particular where the two main characters share a passionate kiss with one another." The glasses wearing girl eagerly shoved the novel into Natsu's twitching, sweaty face. "The detail she puts in is brilliant. Just incredible! If you look into their eyes you can feel the emotion, the _passion_, that both men are experiencing."

Staring at the page with eyes blurred from pain, Natsu could only manage a single pained moan. They may have just been squiggly drawings of fish made by Happy for all he knew.

Yet Haruna nodded her head in agreement anyway. "Right?" She said. "It really is amazing, I know. Someday I'll be capable of this level and higher. As I grow in fame my fans will spread across the globe and usher in a new era for all humankind! Mwahahaha! _Fear me oh powerless masses! Adore your future queen._"

As the girl continued her mad rant and Yue offered a prayer to some dude named Buddha, Natsu closed his eyes and pressed his face harder against the cool glass of the train's window. Traveling on a vehicle was bad enough, but this was torture. It had to be revenge for his rampage last night. Natsu scowled for a moment before sinking back into nauseating pain. He'd only burned down a couple meters of forest; the guy should be grateful that Natsu held back.

However, what made the experience worse was that he could understand every single word of the never-ending flow without needing another mage to cast a spell of translation. Thanks to a small charm tied around his wrist, Natsu was able to understand any language spoken. He had considered ripping it off more than once, but his weakened body didn't have the strength. That Mana girl had tied it on with a smile – now Natsu knew why she had been smiling. The sadist must have known this was going to happen.

Haruna had been asking him all sorts of weird things since the train ride began; questions about the color of his hair and how far down it went, why he had such a muscled physique with so many small scars, and if he could give her an option on these books she kept shoving into his face. Neither his silent screaming, his nauseated face, nor his inability to coherently respond to her questions seemed to bother the girl. At one point during the journey, Natsu was certain that the little she-devil had wrapped some sort of yellow tape with weird markings around his waist and other parts of his body while she called out numbers to a classmate elsewhere in the carriage.

"I know that you're Negi-sensei's cousin, so I was really hoping to get your opinion on this one doujinshi that I'm working on." Haruna shuffled her hands around in some sort of handbag before shoving another pile of paper into his face. "It's my secret work, my greatest and most ambitious effort to date."

Natsu blinked his eyes as he tried to make out details. Maybe if he could actually comment back on something, she would leave him alone. The dragon slayer bent his mind and will towards the goal, pushing his body to the limits as he stared at the sheaf of loose-leaf paper in front of his eyes. Yet when the pictures began to come into focus, Natsu almost wished they had just stayed as blurry dots.

"See, it's a what-if story involving Negi-sensei and our old teacher Takahata-sensei that I came up with one night after listening to Asuna and Ayaka have another one of their fights concerning men." She flipped a few pages. "So, as Negi's cousin, do you think that this scene here is plausible in ten years? And what do you think of this older version of Negi?" Before he could respond, a particularly hard jolt ran through the compartment that crashed Natsu's head against the train's metal bulkhead. Natsu's brain decided to give out on him and he passed out.

Natsu awoke to the feeling of the train stopping. He whimpered in relief at the twin feelings of the train halting and seeing Haruna getting up to grab her bags. Soon his personal hell would be over and he would be back on sweet, sweet ground.

Why had he listened to the little boy and his students when they said he should travel back with them? Oh right. It had seemed like a good idea at the time with all sorts of logical points. Natsu didn't know his way around, he needed resources to find his friends, and he didn't have Happy to fly him. They had also bought him a shirt and a pair of khaki shorts that fit him loosely as well, although he had kept the bearskin and gave it to Negi for safekeeping.

Yet here he was, standing on death's doorstep and wanting to bash the door down and run inside. To hell with the secrecy of magic the kid and the old sword guy had yammered on about! Then another wave of nausea hit him, driving all thoughts of magic out of his mind.

The class disembarked in a flurry of activity. The girls laughed and screeched, with some trying to grab their young teacher like a piece of luggage that they had almost forgotten. The young boy moved through their attempts with a polished ease, giving Natsu hope that things would move quickly and efficiently. Alas, that was not to be the case. Some students were more determined than others.

"Negi-sensei," called one redheaded student – Kazumi Asakura, if Natsu remembered her name correctly – as she shoved some sort of metallic device into his face and trapped the smaller man against a wall with her body. "Is there any way I could get an exclusive interview regarding the events at the hotel before we leave the train? Could you please explain the kissing craze that seems to have been the dream of multiple girls?"

The young boy genius rubbed the back of his neck as he laughed. "Sorry Asakura-san, I can't do that. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about either. But thank you for your assistance during the trip." The young mage bowed his head in thanks and smiled. "You were a big help to us."

The girl, Kazumi, gave a quick laugh and tapped her nose with one finger. "I'll accept that for now, Negi-sensei. Sometimes a reporter has to let the small fish go in order to land the big one. Besides," she purred with a sultry smile, leaning low and close. Through the haze of his discomfort, Natsu could have sworn he saw the little go red in the face as her breasts pressed against the kid's body, "I still need to get a real pactio card from you anyway, sensei."

Natsu turned his attention back towards the door as a horde of the laughing redhead's female classmates descended on student and teacher. They continued to yell and holler at one another. Eventually Natsu couldn't bear it any longer. With a rocking start, the fire mage flopped his body to the floor with a meaty thud.

"Oof. Not good." His body contorted in nauseous agony. _Okay body, start moving. Please start moving. Please start... yes! Here we go now, _Natsu thought in victory as he crawled along the floor. _Freedom shall be mine!_

He managed to worm his way around a pair of hyper twins and the gun toting crazy lady, yet just as Natsu was only a few body lengths away from the train's door where Negi stood counting the students, one of the crazy horde of women trampled him down from behind. "My spine!" He gasped.

Completely ignorant of Natsu's plight, the student latched onto her target. "Negi-sensei," cried the busty blonde student as she clasped the boy's hands with her own. "This trip must have simply tired you out. I honestly don't know how you put up with everyone." A twinkle entered her voice. "You really must come to my house and spend the evening, getting treated by my masseuses after a wonderful dinner. What do you say, Sensei?"

Natsu gulped as his breakfast sought to rise once more. Even in his haze of agony, something wasn't right about that woman's smell. It was too pungent; overwhelming that of every other person nearby, but Natsu wasn't in any position to investigate. It was just the jolt his system needed to get moving again.

He tried to crawl around the pair and nearly succeeded, only to gurgle in pain as Asuna came flying out of nowhere. Kicking Natsu into another seating compartment seemingly without looking, Natsu then heard the fan-maniac forcibly separating the taller girl from her teacher.

"No you don't Ayaka," the fan-maniac growled, "I'm not letting a shotacon like you dig her claws into Negi. He's going to take his cousin to see the Dean and then he's coming back with Konoka and me. Nuh-uh!" She snapped as Natsu heard the other girl squawk in indignation. "None of that nonsense today. None. Just give up and move along Iincho. We can continue this in class or later in the weekend. Negi and I have to find his cousin Natsu otherwise we'll be late. So shoo, shoo."

The blonde haired woman moved away with a muttered threat towards Asuna and a gushing hug for her teacher. Natsu heard Asuna growl in annoyance. "Where is that flame-brained moron?" He heard her ask as he finally gave up and stopped trying to resist the pain."Just because we're calling him your cousin doesn't mean he has to act like you and disappear on me."

As she moved on with her search, Natsu came to a realization. He was going to die there, alone and in pain, his remains found only when someone else tried to board the train. No glorious death in battle – just a pitiful end within a train carriage. _Happy,_ _I'll see you again at the great fish in the sky. I'll try to save you a bite to eat too, but no promises_. Natsu felt his heartbeat grow weaker. Soon, it seemed to stop; Natsu passed away. Freed from its mortal coil his shining spirit rose and flew into the sky, soaring to a place of endless warmth and happiness.

"Asuna-san, I found him. He's asleep in the corner. But he doesn't look so good... Ah!" Natsu vaguely heard as he flew towards Heaven. He saw a soft golden glow as he soared above the clouds and a great, magical gate shining in the distance. A melodius voice filled his ears, telling him to go towards it.

"His spirit is leaving his body! Oh my God! Quick Asuna, what do we do? I don't know any spells for something this serious. Wait, I do, but no! I don't want to become a necromancer! Then I'd be turned into an ermine for sure and never find my father. Oh no, oh no, oh no."

Natsu's hand touched the pearly gates and a bearded dude eating fish gave him a thumbs up. Natsu returned the gesture. Whoever the guy was, he sure was polite. Ripped too if those hands were any indication.

"Move aside brat. I'll bring him back." Natsu sighed as he opened the door and saw the glorious golden light of heaven. As he felt its warm light wash across him, he almost felt like he was back with Igneel. He was safe and comfortable at last. "Come back to us, pink pervert!"

Natsu felt some slight pressure on chest. The pressure halted his body somehow; no matter how much Natsu strained he couldn't move forward. But then the pressure disappeared, allowing him to resume his course.

"Dammit, compression's aren't working. I've got no choice. _Adeat!_" Natsu lifted his right foot to step across the gate's threshold. Eternal peace and love was in his grasp. "_Fan Slap of Life!_"

Vitality rushed into his body, ripping him away from the gate and slamming his spirit back into his body with a shuddering gasp. "Aaaah! _Why-y-y-y_?" "Natsu gurgled as he felt his spirit return. "Just let me die already, you bell wearing monster! I was almost at the great fish in the sky."

Manly tears of sorrow fell down his face. This was too cruel; everything since Natsu had arrived here had been just too cruel. "It would have tasted to so good, and the bearded guy even gave me the thumbs up to go in too," he whispered. "Why, why did you bring me back?"

Asuna growled as she put her Pactio away. "Not gonna happen, pervert." With both arms crossed under her tiny breasts, Asuna glared at him. Natsu tried to glare back but failed miserably. He was in too much agony to care.

The girl snorted. "Now come with me; I'm not letting you out of my sight on campus either. It looks like you're even worse when left to your own devices than Negi." Not giving him a chance to recover even an ounce of strength, the fan-maniac grabbed his shirt and dragged him up and down the train.

"I saw the gates and everything," Natsu whimpered. It wasn't fair!

Asuna just gave the collar of his hastily acquired red t-shirt a jerk. "Just keep your mouth shut until we get to the Dean's office. We're taking the school's car to the school's administration wing." She looked around. "Where did that brat get to? He was just here too!"

Natsu gurgled as he felt the nausea return. Asuna's hand quickly slapped onto his mouth. "Ah, no, shut it you moron! I don't want anything coming out that should stay in your body – otherwise, I'm finishing what Mana began." Natsu could only dream of such a blessed event happening to him.

The maniac kept dragging him along while shouting orders to her little teacher, whom she found talking with Konoka and Setsuna in the train's back compartment. The two girls seemed to be comforting him. "Negi! Hurry up and grab our stuff! We'll be meeting Konoka back at the room later but that doesn't mean you can dump everything onto her. Chop chop sensei! Before this guy goes and dies on us again."

At that moment, as the three of them set off to find the car, Natsu disliked the girl more than anyone not named Gray. He would someday have his revenge in the most Erza like way possible, even if it took months. No one messed with a dragon slayer and got away with it.

* * *

"Play the video again, Chachamaru. I wish to see boya's expression once more."

With a soft noise of whirring gears, Chachamaru turned her head away from the floor and looked at her tiny sovereign. "Master, I could replay the holographic recording once again," the robot stated, "but you have already seen it twenty-four times. I would recommend archiving the video for a later date and concentrating on your bath before the bubbles disappear."

Eva splashed the robot with water. Sadly, Chachamaru gave no reaction. "Once more," Eva commanded, "then you may go. I've never seen the Boya with such an amusing face. Play the video of the pink idiot once more." Chachamaru turned her head back to the floor. Beams of light shone from her eyes and a picture of the previous day's events came to life on the floor by Eva's tub.

Eva sighed, groaning in ecstasy as she dipped lower into the steaming hot bath. Watching the video again for the twenty-fifth time, Eva still shivered with delight. Few things in the world felt better after releasing her full power than a nice hot bubbly bath drawn by Chachamaru and watching an entertaining video.

Thinking back on the events of the past few days was mildly pleasant for the small vampire. Eva had been able to truly stretch her wings for the first time in a decade. Powering up during the festival was fun and all, but she had been able to _use_ her power. Dispatching a demon older than herself, terrifying the boya and his little ministra, along seeing the greatest display of idiocy since the Thousand Master himself... well, that was cause for quiet celebration.

She giggled at the thought. Boya's class of girls was mildly entertaining the more she learned of them, but not enough to hold her attention for very long. Too many years spent with girls their age had dulled Eva's interest. Yet between the little Springfield, Asuna, Sakurazaki and this new idiot friend of theirs, she might be able to have more enjoyment than any time since before Nagi sealed her into the damn academy ten years ago.

As the hologram flickered to an end, the tiny woman cupped her hands together beneath the water and slowly brought them above the surface. Bubbles glittered on her palms, refracting light in a glittering cascade of rainbows. They were beautiful. She blew them apart and smiled.

The hologram soon came to an end and with it Eva's desire to think of anything complex. "Aah... this really is hitting the spot," she hissed to herself as Chachamaru left the room. Still smiling, Eva leaned back and closed her eyes. The vampire lost track of time while she soaked in a world of heat and bubbles. Dreams ran through her head, of men and boys with red and pink hair.

When she awoke from her impromptu nap, Chachamaru and the rest of her attending dolls had left the vampire alone in the room. Eva nodded at their absence as she stepped out of the still warm bath. Efficient use of time and energy on their part was pleasing to their master.

Wrapping herself with a soft black robe placed at the foot of the tub, Eva slowly made her way out of the bathing area and back to her room. A great yawn split her face, exposing two pairs of needle sharp fangs. After sipping an exceptional vintage of Syrah from a glass left in an alcove near her room, Eva flicked off the lights around her with a mental command. Such an excellent day deserved to be topped off with an equally great rest. The petite vampire gratefully climbed into her mussed up bed and let darkness wrap itself around her body.

It was only when an arm belonging to a still living person made its way around her waist that Eva knew she was not alone. Her scream could have woken the dead as the lights of her room blazed to life.

* * *

Natsu stared in wonder at the buildings of Mahora. They were all so different, completely unlike anything he had encountered in Fiore, and the crowd of people who moved around him was filled with noise and life. Being out of vehicles had rejuvenated the pink-haired mage.

After meeting with the Dean, who had been sleeping on the floor of his office in a futon due to exhaustion, Natsu and the others had run into Takamichi. The white-clothed mage had greeted them cordially and explained that he was back on some kind of mission. They had spoken for a while, with Negi and Takamichi discussing some theory concerning the pink-haired man. They used big words, but the gist of it was that Natsu was not supposed to be in this world and that some kind of resonances were changing the field of magic. Or something like that.

Takamichi had grown silent for a time, before turning the dragon slayer and informing him that the reason behind his mission was that the magical world had detected the resonances and was investigating them. One had happened in Mahora, centered on the home of the woman named Eva.

A growl escaped the dragon slayer's throat. There was something about that woman which he found offsetting. Combined with the sheer power he had felt radiating from her and Natsu couldn't wait to have a proper throw-down. Natsu slammed one fist into his open palm, startling his two companions. Unsettling problems were best solved using fists.

That was almost how things had been resolved between Natsu and Takamichi. Takamichi had originally been against Natsu's inclusion, which had caused the fire mage to flare his power in a fiery display of anger. Takamichi had icily responded, and without Negi's quick interference, they probably would have come to blows. Natsu wished they had; the tall guy was powerful!

Under the deal Negi brokered, the little guy and Takamichi would examine the cottage and surrounding area for anything of interest while Natsu would accompany them. Much to her disappointment, Asuna had been sent home on account of her magical ability possibly interfering with their special tests. Natsu didn't care; he just hoped that there was another Fairy.

With some clothes on, no vehicles, and no Asuna or Haruna around, Natsu was enjoying himself. The town was amazing. People were walking around everywhere, with all sorts of gadgets he had never seen. And that huge tree was awesome – it was on the same level as the Tenrou tree!

As they passed one particularly fragrant area, Natsu's nose twitched in curiousity. "Hey Negi, what's that shop over there do?" He said, pointing. "Can we go in it? It smells really good!"

The trio of mages stopped and looked where Natsu had pointed. Takamichi shook his head and pulled out a cigarette while Negi pinched his nose before replying. "It makes pastries, Natsu-san." Negi muttered as he and Takamichi continued. "And before you ask, the one next door is ice cream, the one next that is a clothing store, and the one beyond that sells shoes."

"Ooh! You guys have ice cream over here as well? That's awesome! I can't wait to show this place to Lucy and Wendy. Can we go in and try some out?" Natsu thought about it for a moment. "Ya think they have dragonberry flavor?"

Negi sighed. "Can you please ask questions later, Natsu-san? We are on an important mission that could be time sensitive." He and Takamichi continued walking again, forcing Natsu to catch up or be left behind.

"Dang spoilsports," he muttered. Besides being genuinely interested in the ice cream – dragonberry was the best ice cream flavor bar none – Natsu was trying to match and catalog all of the various smells coming his way, but it was tough going. He had to constantly ask the two other mages about the places they encountered and then try to figure things out using their information and his own general knowledge.

"Guys can't even smell their own scents." Natsu grumbled. "It could be pitch black out and they wouldn't be able to smell me until I was right on top of 'em." Natsu wondered to himself if it was how Igneel had felt every time he took Natsu near a city. The old dragon had grumbled every time, saying that the smells in them changed too often. Natsu paused a moment. The fond memory had brought another revelation home. Would he ever see his foster father again? Or would the great dragon be forever out of his reach?

"I miss you, Igneel." Natsu whispered. "Every day." Then he shook his head and cleared the sadness away. Living took guts, and Natsu had plenty to spare. So long as the dragon slayer was alive, there was hope.

It was nighttime as they neared the city's edge. They were about to leave the paved streets and enter the forest paths that would take them to Eva's house when Natsu noticed that someone placed a coal-fueled brazier by some kind of food stall. A couple of people were hanging around it, and the two behind the counter looked like Negi's students. None of them interested Natsu, but that beautiful fire was another matter entirely. It had been far too long since he had a bite of fire and his body could use the fuel.

Natsu nudged the little mage walking next to him, almost sending the poor kid flying. "Hey Negi, Taka-dude, mind if we stop by that place over there for a quick bite? I could really use a pick me up to recover from all that traveling earlier."

Negi's stomach chose that moment to grumble in support of Natsu's idea and Takamichi laughed as he responded. Maybe the big guy wasn't too bad – he was definitely nothing like the guy in Haruna's books.

Takamichi's laughter gradually tapered off and he spoke to the others. "Sure Natsu; Negi and I could probably use something as well. It is starting to get rather dark, and we might be out all night long between taking readings and speaking with Eva. Having food in our bellies could make the task ahead easier."

As the three mages walked over to the restaurant, Takamichi pulled an item from his pocket and took out some stamped pieces of paper. "Here Negi, use this to pay for three orders of Baozi to go. I'll meet up with you ahead and take some preliminary readings while I wait." With that, the bearded man placed his hands into his pockets and walked into the night.

"Alright – food!" Natsu smiled happily and made a beeline for the brazier. The fire was cracking merrily, a beautiful cherry red over a white hot bottom. Little Negi walked beside him, seemingly lost in thought and not paying attention.

As Natsu neared the brazier, his plans for a fiery snack were soon foiled. One of Negi's student's shouted out a greeting towards the two mages and waved them over to the stall's counter. Grabbing tight to Natsu's shirt, Negi brought the older boy along with him to speak with the students. As Natsu briefly struggled against the weaker boy's grasp, he looked down and something in the younger man's eyes told Natsu to shut up and go along with it.

"Negi-bouzu, Natsu-san, how nice to see you frequent our establishment-ne." The young black-haired girl said as they got near. "We didn't realize you knew tonight was the test run of Chao Bao Zi's new menu ahead of the festival." With her hair twisted into buns and clothed in a tight silk dress, the girl smiled cheerfully at the two men from behind the counter-top. "Come-ne, come and sit down for a moment and talk with us."

Natsu glanced down at Negi before staring back at the girl and giving her a shrug. "Eh... hey there." He wasn't very good at small talk with random people he had just met.

Luckily for him, Negi was somewhat better. "Of course, Chao-san. But I'm afraid that I – I mean, we – can't stay for very long. Takamichi asked me to get three orders of Baozi to go. He's helping me show Natsu around campus." The little mage walked up to the counter as Natsu followed behind, still gazing longingly at the fire. "This should be enough to pay for the meal," he said as he placed the paper notes on top of the counter. Behind it, a second girl nodded her head and began pouring some ingredients into a frying pan.

The girl named Chao waved her teacher's money away. "I'm afraid not, Negi-bouzu. That's not nearly enough-ne for three bowls of Chao Bao Zi's special dish." Hopping over the counter's top and landing right beside her much shorter professor, Chao leaned in close to whisper softly into her teacher's ear. It was easily within Natsu's range of hearing. "But I would consider doing it for a magical kiss from you, ne."

"M-m-magic k-k-kiss?" Negi stuttered as his face became panicked. "I-I don't know what you're talking about, Chao-san. And besides, it-it really wouldn't be proper. I'm too young, an-and you're my, well, you're my student and -" Natsu's mind tuned out at that point as the girl leaned back in to whisper something else into his ear.

Natsu scratched his head as he watched the girl play and toy with a stuttering Negi for several long minutes straight while he thought about Chao's original offer. Sure the kid was young, but it wasn't as though there was anything wrong with it. Besides, if it got Natsu some grub to go along with his fire, then Natsu was all for it.

Although he still hadn't figured out a way to grab the fire without alarming anyone; the damn rules they had on magic in this place pissed him off! Eyeing the brazier once more, Natsu thought he might be able to do it if he had a distraction.

He nudged the still stammering wizard. Natsu wanted his fire. "C'mon kid, just hurry up and kiss her already. S'alright by me. It's not anything all that weird, right?" Negi's face turned completely red and he turned away from the older kids, leaving Natsu and Chao to look at one another.

Chao smiled. Walking a circle around the fire mage, Chao eventually stopped and ran a finger across his broad shoulders as she spoke mischievously. "You know, Natsu-san, a kiss from you might do nicely as well." Her smile curved upwards, lighting up her eyes as she spoke. "A strong, experienced man like yourself would probably know –" Chao's eyes suddenly widened.

Natsu had grabbed her by the waist like Lisanna had taught him and brought his lips to her own. After a moment of shock and resistance, Natsu felt her smaller body melt into his own. Her arms snaked around his neck with surprising force, dragging him closer as she deepened the kiss between them. Rational thought began to flee from Natsu's mind as the kiss went on, nothing like the kisses Lisanna had given him when the two Fairies had been young.

"Here Negi-sensei. I finished your orders," Natsu dimly heard another girl say. "I hope that the three of you enjoy the meal, and that you stop by here when we're fully open." Natsu heard Negi stumble through a reply. A short time later, the little mage was poking Natsu's side.

With payment given and food received, Natsu broke the kiss with the girl in his arms and tried to separate. If he kept going for any long, a part of his mind told him that he might get in trouble. However, as he went to let go of her waist and apologize for his actions, Natsu quickly realized that he was actually supporting the young girl's entire weight. If he moved and let go, the young woman would probably fall to the ground. Crap; Lisanna hadn't taught him what to do when this happened.

Natsu shook the woman a little. "Oi, you alright?" She didn't respond, and her eyes remained tightly shut as she clung tightly to his neck. "Oi, uh, Negi, come over here. I think I did something wrong when I kissed her."

The girl's eyes fluttered open and stared at him, soft and confused pools of light within the night air. Natsu blinked, somewhat puzzled. "Oh. Um, never mind Negi. She's okay." Natsu grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that, but with the kid not paying up and you offering, I decided to pay instead. I hope I didn't step over any boundaries or somethin. It was really good!"

Slowly, Chao disentangled herself from Natsu's body, all while staring at the dragon slayer in a way that made him decidedly nervous. Her dark eyes glittered in the brazier's firelight. The hard stare as she looked at him made Natsu question his rash decision. The dragon slayer's nervousness grew as he recalled one of Mirajane's lessons from his youth. _Never kiss a girl that didn't ask for it; and even if she did, make sure she actually meant it_.

After a moment, Chao stopped her piercing stare and smiled at him. "Ne, it's quite okay, Natsu-kun. Even if it was somewhat in jest, the offer was honestly made." She patted his cheek and stepped back. "Besides, I enjoyed myself as well. You have quite the unique..." She seemed to search for words, "flavor, and someone has taught you to use your body quite well, ne."

She bowed her head slightly and placed her hands within the deep sleeves of her silken tunic. "May the two of you have a pleasant evening. It was good to see you, Negi-bouzu." Her eyes sparkled once again as she turned to Natsu. "And it was a pleasure to meet you, Natsu-kun."

The mages thanked her in return, with Natsu giving a thumbs up as Negi blushed, and then left to resume their mission. The dragon slayer smiled in glee; he'd been able to palm a single coal when Chao had nodded her head at them. He couldn't wait to dig in once they were out of sight.

Yet as they left the restaurant, food in hand and with the younger boy pestering the older one and tugging on his sleeve, Natsu heard Chao's parting whisper. "You I did not plan for at all, Natsu. Oh no, not at all."

Puzzled by her words, Natsu tried to think of why a restaurant owner would make plans for him. He and young Negi walked in the night, following the road to Takamichi. Natsu soon gave up and shrugged his shoulders, taking a bite out of the hot coal. Some things could be left until later.

* * *

**Next Time in **_**Fairies of Negima**_**:** Eva gets a little softer; Natsu finds a Fairy; and the big picture starts to come into focus.

A/N: Didn't see that coming, did you? Actually, neither did I. Dang scene wrote itself – I think it was my subconscious wanting to give Natsu a wonderful break from the torment.

R&R if you liked it – or didn't. In any case, this will be the last of my initial burst of updates. Hopefully it is enough to tide you over while I work on the next burst. If not, I always include a sneak peak of the next chapter in my profile.

Thanks once again go to the excellent _**Raiyoukai**_, who got this chapter edited with lightning speed.

Until next time,

Elsil


	4. Chapter 4: Hello Dolly

**Disclaimer:** The following story is a fan made work of fiction. _Fairy Tail_ and _Mahou Sensei Negima!_ are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.

**Chapter 4**

**Hello Dolly**

"_Argh!_" Gray screamed in pain as he wrenched his body away from the maniacal doll. The thing was no bigger than Happy or Charle, but the giant meat cleaver it wielded had carved into his side with murderous intent. The tiny monstrosity gave him no quarter as he tried to back away, a tattered white sheet flaring around his waist as he moved.

"Weeee, look at it bleed." The doll screamed joyfully. Each word was punctuated with a slash of its cleaver. "I cut you, I skewer you, I make you into mincemeat!" He scrambled to the side, dodging the cleaver and gritting his teeth as blood dripped down his side.

With a quick feint to his right, Gray made a rolling leap to his left and placed some distance between them. Slamming his hands together, Gray forced another spell out of his dwindling supply of magic. "_Ice Make: Floor!_"

A thick coating of ice came into being, covering the surrounding floor for as far as his eyes could see. He gave a grunt of exertion as the magic left him and grabbed his side. The cut was shallow; making the real threat it posed loss of blood. Gray put an emergency coating of ice over the wound to slow down the bleeding.

Then the dang doll floated above the ice and resumed its slashing attack with a laugh. Gray stared at it blankly for a moment before cursing and covering one of his arms with a blade of ice. Every time he came up with a tactic to beat them, the dolls always pulled some new trick that completely negated him.

"Dammit, what does it take to make you go stop?" Gray shouted. The doll tried to stab him again, which Gray blocked with his icy blade. "Why won't you just leave me alone? And why can't you just go back to shouting in that stupid language of yours? I liked it more when I couldn't understand a thing you said."

He got no reply other than a stilted laugh. The thing was crazy but determined, launching attack after attack. "Haha! Look at all the delicious red stuff you put on my blade, silly human." The doll pushed him back with a series of quick swipes which Gray barely blocked. "Your life is mine, black-haired pervert. No one enters the master's bed uninvited and leaves alive. _Fear the wrath of Chachazero!_"

This had to be the most confusing fight of his life, but Gray didn't give the crazed being any chance to make good on its threats. He locked his sword arm with the things cleaver, maneuvering his body until he got the right amount of leverage. Then he bashed the doll and its blade away, watching as it ricocheted amongst the rubble that surrounded them. It soon popped back up and flew at him screaming bloody vengeance.

Dispelling his icy blade, Gray slammed both hands together and took the stance Ur taught him. "_Ice Make: Geyser!_" A pillar of frozen magic burst forth from the ground, trapping the screeching doll deep within. Its body froze instantly and hung suspended by Gray's magic. The blasted thing was finally silent.

Then he began to pay the price of casting such a powerful spell. Stars to burst behind his eyes and he began to stagger. His breaths came in gasps as the pain from this battle joined with the wounds he had received in the earlier skirmishes. He fell against the frozen pillar, unable to stand on his own.

The pain came in waves and battered his skull. It flared from the wound in his side and flowed from his exhausted muscles. Every inch of his body hurt, forming a crescendo of ceaseless torment. It was tough to see or think through its haze, and it wasn't long before black began to nibble at the edge of his sight.

"C'mon body. Hang in there." Gray blinked his eyes to clear the stars and blackness. It worked a little. Not much, but a little. "That's how you do it, Gray. Don't let some punkass doll win."

He didn't know how long he stood supporting himself on the geyser of ice, but eventually Gray managed to force the pain away. It fell to a dull roar in the back of his mind, ever present but manageable. He pushed himself off of the frozen pillar of ice and backed away, staring at the doll trapped within.

"Fuck you, you damn psychopath," he wheezed. "And don't come back with any of your friends either. I'm sick of you, alright?" He sat down and placed his back to the pillar, hissing in pain as he felt the skin around the cut tighten from the movement.

"Thing almost gutted me with a friggin meat cleaver." Gray muttered, incredulous. Feeling the length of the cut with one of his fingers, the ice mage winced and counted his blessings. The cut ran clear across his ribs for a good six inches. If he had been an instant slower the thing would have killed him with the first attack. "Note to self; never allow kids to own dolls with blades. It's a crappy idea."

Gray took a quick look around his position. He didn't see anything moving, nor did he sense any sort of magic. It didn't mean much considering how often the dolls had managed to ambush him, but it would have to suffice. He stiffly ripped thin shreds out of the tattered sheet tied around his middle and began twisting them into rough bandages with practiced ease. The blanket had been the only thing he'd managed to grab before that little girl had shrieked like a banshee and cast her spell.

When she had channeled an iceberg the size of a small hill at him, Gray had run like a man possessed. Gray's eyes bulged just remembering the girl's spell. He had never seen ice magic on that scale cast so quickly. Not even Ur or that mystery assailant in the woods had displayed anything of the sort! Any thought of possibly explaining why he had been in the girl's bed had been shut down by that spell and the ensuing doll attack force.

The pain in his side worsened as he applied the crude bandages. He had undone the emergency coating of ice he had applied earlier and the process stung like a bee on drugs. Gray's breath hissed between tight teeth as the thin cloth stuck to his bloody side. It stuck to the blood welling up, quickly adhering to the skin beneath. He then drew on his ice magic to place another thin layer of ice over the wound. It wasn't anything near what Wendy could do but the damn thing might keep him alive long enough to escape this hellhole of a resort. He shook his head to shake off the fatigue of blood loss and magic deprivation. It only worked a little.

He was running on fumes by this point. After the first few hours of full out battle with the dolls, things had settled into guerrilla warfare. Every time he found a place to hide, they flushed him out. Whenever he tried to take the offensive and remove them, they swarmed his location in an endless horde.

The only strategy which seemed to be somewhat effective was one of constant movement, but it was far from perfect. It required energy and opened him to ambushes like the last one, and Gray had reached his limits. He didn't have much left in his magical gas tank and that psycho doll's attack had made him lose a lot of blood. His hands trembled as they rested on his thighs. On top of that, he hadn't been able to catch more than a moment's rest since the battle started. If he didn't find a way out of this place soon, it would be his grave.

"I have to find that girl," he muttered to himself. "She's the only living thing I've encountered. The only thing that makes sense." He picked himself off of the ground and tried to walk. The pain was almost crippling. He slammed a fist into a nearby wall, using the resulting pain to focus his thoughts. "Where the heck did she go?"

"Right here, little Ice Magus. And I've finally come out to play."

Gray whipped his body around and slammed his hands together. He marshaled the last of his magic and tried to release it in a single powerful burst. The purring voice in his ear had come from right behind him, accompanied by a blazing magical force the likes of which he had never felt in his life. Gray knew that he was finished if she was able to land even a single blow on his battered body.

"_Tempestatem Congelata Vincula!_"

He felt the impact deep within his bones as the spell flung him through a massive pillar of stone. He crashed through it and into the open courtyard from which he had just left, slamming face down into the courtyard's flagstones. A burst of light flashed behind his eyes as he hit and a gasp of pain burst from his lips.

Gray came to with a start only moments later. He had blacked out for a moment, and control of his senses returned slowly. The pain that came with them proved he was alive. Pain which increased as the ice picked him back up and slammed him down once more.

"You must be the first assassin sent in nearly half a century," the girl's voice spoke sweetly. Gray wanted to grab her by the throat and kill her with that too sweet tone. "It's a pity that you won't able to grow into your full strength; you have great skill for someone so young. With a few more years you may have been able to provide me with some true sport."

Gray tried to lift his head to see her, only to have a bare foot slam his face back into the flagstones. He cried out as his teeth bit into his tongue. Blood welled from the wound and soon drizzled out of his mouth.

"Why must the young always be in such a hurry?" The girl sighed. "Allow me to teach you the price of your folly." She proceeded to mash his head into the torn ground with her foot, grinding his face in the dust and broken rubble. "To think that you could defeat the Dark Evangel with this level of power was beyond stupid. You are a hundred years too early, boy, and your master is a fool for wasting your talent in such an endeavor."

Gray felt every broken shard in the ground try to knife its way into his skin as she continued to twist. He tried to keep his mouth shut, but bits and pieces worked their way in. Soon his mouth was filled with chips of rock and a cement-like mixtures of dust, saliva, and blood. It spilled out of his mouth in bloody heaves.

Her foot let off the pressure, allowing him to shift his head to the side and spit out everything that had entered his mouth. Some of it had gone down his throat, entering his stomach and lungs. Gray's body was wracked with a sudden spasm of heaves as his body emptied itself of everything he had shoved down it. The soft patter of feet came as she moved away.

"Now speak, assassin, and end your suffering before it has yet to truly begin. Or be prepared to receive a taste of what my dolls can do when I am motivated to join them."

Gray worked his tongue around his teeth, dislodging what he could and working moisture back into his mouth. More bloody spit fell to the ground as he spit out everything he could. It felt terrible, but it would work. Gray raised his head and stared at his tormentor. He would not give her the satisfaction of seeing him cower.

The girl stood before him in a skimpy black dress whose red highlights could have been taken from the blood covering Gray's body. Golden hair framed green irises tinged with red in a startlingly pale face. A face that wore an expression of bloody glee that no child should ever wear.

Everything about it dug under his skin. After all of the pain he had endured, after the sacrifices of Ur and Ultear, this is how he met his end? At the hands of an insane child who couldn't be older than ten? It was insulting to everything he had ever done and to everyone he had ever known. Lyon would probably disown him if he ever found out. Yet there was nothing Gray could do to win or run.

His body had broken down and Gray knew it would be only a short time before he passed out. To add insult to injury, he could sense the power radiating from every pore of her body. It was enough to put any Wizard Saint to shame, and Gray doubted he could have taken her before the dolls had worn him down.

However, he would be damned if he went down without so much as a squeak.

With a hacking cough, he shoved out everything he could from his mouth and drew a deep breath. "You know kid, I've got no idea what you're talking about," he rasped through a dusty throat. "I was stuck here for about a day before you arrived, with no idea why I was even sent here without my friends. And if I'd known that you and your crazy dolls were around, you can bet that I would've tried a damn bit harder to break out of this place." A fit of coughing hit, wracking his entire body and forcing him to drop his head.

He bit out his next words into the dust. "So while I know nothing about you, your dolls, or this hell-forsaken place, I do know this: that when you kill me, you will be making an enemy of the worst guild you possibly anger."

He manged to raise his head one final time. "So you had better hide my death, 'cause if you don't... then Fairy Tail's gonna come knocking and blow you away." He spit out a wad of bloody dust at her feet and grinned a feral smile. Then he passed out and knew only darkness.

* * *

Eva sighed to herself as she ran one hand through her golden locks. She had gotten all dressed up for this battle, readying herself for a thrilling confrontation where she learned his secrets and tore his mind to shreds. His final words were a serious downer, ruining the past three days of constant torture she had inflicted upon the mystery mage who had shown up naked in her bed.

To make matters worse, it seemed that he had some kind of connection to the pink-haired moron Negi's girls had found in the forest. _The language should have given it away,_ she thought to herself. _That and the man's nudity_. If only he had squawked like his moron of a friend, she might have connected the dots sooner. It was a good thing she had held off indulging her murderous feelings and let her dolls play with him as she watched.

Now it was time to figure out a way out of this sudden conundrum. She hummed softly to herself, running through various options in her head as she paced to and fro.

She could kill the man and move along. Doing so would satisfy her lingering feelings of anger, and in her resort no one would ever need to know. If he was like that idiot Natsu, then the man was from another world entirely. She couldn't imagine a more perfect scenario in which to get away with murder.

But doing so would be wasteful as well. He represented an opportunity to learn more about a completely separate world, one that had completely different ways of using magic. She had tried to puzzle out how he channeled his power but was still drawing a blank. He appeared to use no kind of medium in his casting, nor did he ever say anything besides an initial cry of 'ice make.' If it was a chant, then it was the shortest chant Eva had ever encountered.

She unbound him from her frozen chains and sighed to herself. _Damn mages are making me go soft. A few decades ago and he would have been bound within my dungeon, screaming for mercy as I plunged his mind_. She could feel the changes that Mahora Academy had worked upon her bubbling to the surface like a scented bath, twisting her sadistic joy to annoyance.

A second spell made the man rise on currents of air, sending him floating towards one of the few chambers not completely broken in the past three days of battle. She quickly came upon Chachazero's resting place, where she took a moment to admire the man's creation. It was quite raw but showed great potential. The spell's construction was both simple and elegant, possibly the most exceptional example of ice magic she had ever seen from a young mortal.

The vampire then snapped her fingers, undoing the young man's pillar of ice magic. It resisted her efforts and stayed put. Eva frowned as she stared at it once again. Such an occurrence did not happen often.

She snapped her fingers once again and put more power into the dispel. The pillar of ice disappeared with a flash of light and a pop of displaced air, leaving Chachazero to stumble around in a daze as she screamed.

"Rend and tear your limbs, bleed your soul until you die." Eva dodged a swipe of the blade and backed away as the doll proceeded to run in a giant circle. "Blood for the blood god and the blood god's bile for Chachazero!"

Eva studied her creation for a moment before tuning it out and staring at the place where the man's pillar had once stood. The ice madness would wear off shortly, and it would be useless to try and communicate with her until it did. Meanwhile, there was something disturbing about the mage's composition that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Turning, she attempted to dispel another one of the many creations which littered her resort. The man's strange Ice Magic once again resisted her initial attempt to dispel it. Eva looked at the spell, delving past the outer structure and into the inner matrix.

Her frown deepened as what she saw made no sense to her eyes. There were no bound spirits or rune structures within its depths! It was a construct he had made purely from his own will, with no other outside force involved beyond supplying the initial power to create the spell. Then she saw something which truly startled her. The spell contained ki in its composition!

Her head suddenly awhirl with possibilities, she turned her gaze back to the floating mage. He had done something impossible, something no one had ever done before. Combing magic and ki was an extremely rare gift, of which only Takamichi Takahata was a current master. But Takamichi's kanka was pure energy, whereas this boy's power possessed an aspect!

Eva felt a chill run down her back as she considered the possibilities of his strange magic. "I will have your secrets, little Fairy. One way or the other." With a blast of magic, she forcibly dispelled every one of his ice creations. Dolls fell from the sky and tumbled across the ground in a jumble of limbs as they unfroze.

As her creations picked themselves up, she gave them a quick set of commands. "Chachas, take this man and heal his wounds. Make sure that he is kept somewhere secure, but do not harm him in any way. He is to be treated as an honored guest from this moment on."

She fingered a strap on her dress with one slim hand. These new revelations would require her to immediately locate the Boy and to learn if he knew Takamichi's current location. "And find me a school uniform while you are at it. I need to fetch some more guests."

"Fear the almighty god of dolls! I shall devour your toes and drink of your eyes. All your bases shall belong to us!"

Eva blasted the doll with a brief shock of lighting. Enough was enough. "Chachazero, shut up and get started fixing things."

"... spoilsport."

* * *

Outside of Eva's woodland cabin, Natsu could feel his blood beginning to boil. "I don't see what the big deal is." He muttered as he kicked a rock with his foot. "I've blown down plenty of doors before. I even had to face an insane gorilla woman one time, and that little girl from before couldn't be any worse." Even if she did smell like Zeref, something that still puzzled Natsu. It had been like the dark mage, yet not.

Thinking about it was like a bad itch. Smells should be simple, not complicated. It was hard enough that he was unfamiliar with nearly every smell. Add a smell that he knew and then change it and things really became unfair for his nose. That's not how things worked!

He looked towards his companions. They just kept their heads glued to the same beeping devices held in their hands that they had been staring at for the past hour. Natsu could feel his right eye twitch in annoyance.

"Oi, you guys done over there yet?" Natsu's voice began rising in volume as the annoyance sunk its claws in deep. "'Cause I'm all ready to blow the door down and get things rolling."

The two mages exchanged looks at this statement, with Takamichi giving Negi a nod. The little guy put his wand down as Takamichi pulled out yet another blinking device. This one made beeps that tore at his ears while Negi walked towards Natsu's position. He snorted in annoyance as he plugged his ears with two fingers. More magic sensing bullshit that wasn't getting him any closer to finding one of his friends. That sort of thing had been going on the entire time since they had left Chao's restaurant.

A blush came to his cheeks as he remembered the restaurant. He really needed to remember Mirajane's other lessons on the subject before doing that again. Otherwise, he might have a repeat of that one incident that had nearly gotten him killed. Sure that Chao girl had been pretty, and it seemed as though she had enjoyed it as much as he had, but that was not the point.

Girls were complicated while fighting was simple. Gildarts and Mirajane had both told him to avoid thinking about the one while concentrating on the other until he got old enough to understand things for real. When that would was, Natsu didn't know, but it sure wasn't now. Thankfully, Negi's high pitched voice snapped him back to reality.

"Ah, Natsu-san, you don't really understand," Negi said hesitantly. For a moment Natsu wondered if the kid could read his thoughts and a look of panic came across his face.

Then Negi's next words reminded Natsu of his prior annoyance. "It's a complex situation right now that we need to deal with delicately. Takamichi and I are recording the remnants of the resonance which took place here. We need to record and package the data while it's still fresh. Dealing with Eva-san before we know what's going on is a very bad idea."

"_Argh!_" Natsu yelled. "I blow the door down, we enter, and the two of you ask her some questions while I look for one of my friends." A lick of flame popped into existence around one of his fists. "Sounds good to me."

The boy shook his head and adjusted his glasses. "I refuse to do anything like that, Natsu-san. Thanks to a spell my dad cast on her ten years ago, Eva is stuck in the body of a little kid, with limited magical abilities. It would be rude to intrude upon her while she's still weak."

"Bah! She didn't seem all that weak to me back in that Kyoto place," Natsu grumbled. "If it wasn't so crazy at the time I might have asked her to fight me; the woman felt plenty strong."

He then grimaced as Negi stuttered something about circumstances and special situations. These strange mages Natsu had found seemed to be obsessed with rules and complex situations. It was really getting under his skin. Whoever thought them up was almost as bad as the Fiore's Magic Council. Actually, they could be worse. The council had left Fairy Tail alone for the most part and only stepped in when they really cut loose. This place seemed to enjoy stopping even harmless fun.

"Anyway," Negi continued, "Takamichi thinks that she might be inside a special magical sphere right now. If that is true, she will be nearly as powerful as when we were in Kyoto. So please, try not to antagonize her."

Natsu shook his head and snorted. The boy was too dang eager to make everyone happy. "No promises." He heard Negi sigh, but any further discussion was cut off by Takamichi's voice.

"Negi, come over here. I just found a reading that I'd like for you to confirm," Takamichi called from the other side of the cottage. "It seems like a resonance really did happen here, but the etheric traces can't be sorted out. It's too disturbed to understand without greater sensitivity; I'll need your wand to properly calibrate the machine."

"Coming Takamichi." The kid bolted away from Natsu with a smile, leaving the dragon slayer on his own.

Natsu kicked a second rock and watched as it bounced into the woods. It bounce off a tree and tumbled to the ground where it lay unmoving. He kicked another rock and had the same thing happen again.

_This is gonna be boring as hell_, he thought. No way was he going to stand there and do nothing. "Screw it," he muttered to himself.

He then marched up to the door and pounded on it with his fist, The heavy wood reverberated under his powerful fist. "Hey Eva, I'm here to see you!" No response.

"Oi, open up!" Still no response. That had to mean he could go for it.

"Alright, I'm coming inside." Natsu blew the door off with a boom and entered. Dust and broken splinters rained down in the air around him. A metallic hand sliced towards his jugular with startling speed.

"Oh, hey Chachamaru," he said as he caught her hand. She had some pretty nice speed to her movements. "Where's Eva?"

* * *

Eva brushed some dust off of her uniform as she materialized outside of her resort. Noises coming from above caught her attention. She frowned as she touched the web of magic woven around her house and noticed that parts of it had gone completely dark. Someone whose magic she didn't recognize had broken down her front door and was engaging Chachamaru in close quarter combat.

Eva hissed in displeasure. Knowing her recent run of luck, it would be the Boya and his new moron of a friend. What was it with idiots and causing her trouble? It was like she had become a magnet for their stupidity within the last decade. Just one more curse to lay at the Thousand Master's feet.

Climbing the stairs as quickly as her little legs would allow, the vampire burst into her living room. For a moment she stood frozen in shock. Her precious sanctuary was in ruins!

A blurred object shot past her eyes and hit one of the few remaining objects, blowing it apart from the force of its impact. Negi tried to pick his way out of the broken chair, wincing as he touched an angry red blotch on his forehead. Eva felt a low growl build deep within her small body as she looked at all of the broken items surrounding him.

"Haha! Got ya there, Negi. Come on back when you're stronger!" Natsu and Chachamaru were trading vicious body blows with one another in the middle of the adjoining room. The fiery idiot looked unfazed by the devastation he had wreaked upon her home as he displayed a dazzling skill in unarmed combat.

Dodging a blurred one-two punch combination Chachamaru fired at his midriff, Natsu spat a small ball of flame into her face to throw her off-balance. Eva blinked; that wasn't something your average mage could accomplish. Meanwhile, her servant stumbled back and failed to see his leg kick out, sweeping her to the floor. As she fell, the fire mage jumped onto Chachamaru and tried to place her into a full body lock.

Instead, he got a raised knee slammed into his groin. It looked as though Chachamaru had faked her blindness in order to lure him into a trap. The dirty tactic was almost pleasing enough to make Eva forget the antique German table that been crushed in the process. To add insult to injury, Chachamaru's rejoinder sent Natsu's body smashing into a four hundred year old Hungarian cabinet, where the doll proceeded to grab one of his arms with both hands.

"Negi-sensei, I've got his arm. Come quick before he manages to –" Chachamaru's yell cut off midway through. Natsu had wrenched his arm out of her grip and shoved his other elbow into her face in the process.

"Ha! Got you too Chachamaru!" The pink-haired fire breather smirked at his android opponent. "Still got more in the tank? I'm all fired up right now."

He managed to block a series of blows towards his face. Directing them away, he waited patiently until she changed from chopping slashes to a blurred punch. He caught her fist in the palm of one hand and smiled as he cocked his other arm. Then he was blasted off of his feet as hidden rockets suddenly fired in her joints, overwhelming his defense and smashing into his jaw.

"Okay, so you got some spark," he muttered from beneath the broken rubble of Eva's other antique table. He stood up, cracking his neck and grinning like a madman. "This party's just getting started, yo. Let's go for round two!"

"That's enough for now, moron," Eva hissed as she jerked his feet out from under his body with a set of thin wires. The things came in handy when your body was weak as a newborn kitten. "You've already blown up half of my house and owe me a Hell Ticket; anymore, and you'll owe me a piece of your hide as well."

From his place on the floor, Natsu muttered something into the wooden floorboards. She couldn't hear it, so she stepped closer. He then raised his head and fired a blast of fire at her unsuspecting face.

"_Ah!_" She gave a short cry and stumbled backward, closing her eyes. With a thump, she fell to the ground on her backside. "Ow ow ow!"

That was it. The idiot had damaged her house and bruised her pride. Her face flushed as she stood, holding her hands firmly to her sides and away from her sore bottom. She would show this upstart mage a thing or two about making fun of her. With a quick look at Chachamaru, Eva indicated her intentions.

Wires snaked out from her fingertips and gathered around his unsuspecting body. With a growl, she prepared to unleash her wrath upon his head. Then he began to laugh.

"Wahahahaha! Look at your hair – it's all fizzy!"

Eva just stood there in shock. Slim hands rose to her perfectly straight hair. The hair that she took great care in maintaining, one of the few things about her body that was the same no matter which form she took. Her hands felt a mass of unruly curls.

A shriek of inarticulate rage tore through the house as the vampire flung herself onto Natsu's laughing face. All rationale thought fled from her mind as she was gripped by one thought only: to stop that laughing face and to replace it with tears.

* * *

Gray groaned as he slowly fought his way back to consciousness. He was in a soft but unfamiliar bed, probably in the guild's dorms. His body ached all over from last night's brawl; that damn duo of Natsu and Elfman must have really gotten him good if someone had taken him to the dorms to sleep things off.

Another groan came as he realized he wasn't wearing any underwear. He could only feel some sort of charm tied onto his wrist. Maybe Juvia had stolen it sometime in the night while Gray was sleeping and slapped some silly love bracelet as a twisted form of recompense. _I need to set her straight_, he thought to himself. _I am not a doll to be dressed and undressed at her convenience._

Then memories of the past few days returned and adrenaline surged through his body. He rocketed upright with a sudden gasp. The sheets feel off of his waist as he grabbed his suddenly pounding head between both hands and squeezed both eyes shut.

"No, no. Stupid pervert needs to stay still. The healing process is not yet finished." It was the voice of the doll who had stabbed him. Gray's eyes snapped open and he tried to bring his hands together to freeze the source of the voice. They had made a mistake in leaving him able to use magic, and he would make them pay for it.

His plans for revenge came to an abrupt halt as he felt a sharp point of metal dig into his throat. The damn doll was standing on top of his bed and pressing the tip of her cleaver against his throat with a smile. At that moment, Gray hated it with the passion of a thousand fiery suns.

"But if he wants, Chachazero could make him feel better by stabbing his throat." The doll said with a grin. "Ya feeling lucky, punk? Are ya?" Gray slowly shook his head and dropped his hands.

It waggled the cleaver and sighed in disappointment. "Aw, why'd you have to go and be a good little doggy? I wanted to stab you and make more red liquid gush out!" The sigh deepened before suddenly turning back into a smile. "Eh, oh well. Just lie back down and stay still for awhile. Master told me to clean your room; you have a guest coming to see you shortly."

The doll drew back the knife and hopped off the bed. Placing the weapon by the door it then picked up a brush and dust pan. The maniac then started to hum a strange song about guests putting its service to the test, and Gray could feel his mind shattering.

Last he remembered he had been dead to rights. The girl's ambush had gone off without a hitch, and he had been completely unable to resist her. She had given him every indication that his time had come to an end, that he would be joining Ur and the others in the afterlife.

Yet now one of her creations, a sadistic monster that had carved into him like a butcher into meat, was cleaning out his sickroom, where he had been healed from his injuries, for guests? Things did not add up. No one was this bipolar without a reason. Gray had to figure out the reason. Otherwise his mind might actually crack from the strain.

"What's the deal, you sadistic monster," Gray probed. "Feel like healing me up before doing round two? Is that how things are gonna go down?"

The doll laughed and continued sweeping dust into her little pan. He narrowed his eyes; that was not the reaction he had expected. "Or did your master get cold feet when I mentioned Fairy Tail?"

The doll paused to cock her head. "Nope, I don't think so. Murder doesn't give her cold feet; just the winter and meetings with members of Ala Rubra. But Fairy Tail sounds really pretty – is it something I can stab?"

He blinked. "No. It's a wizard guild." She stared blankly at his face. "A guild. An association of people wherein like minded mages gather for social and economic betterment." She continued to stare blankly.

Gray threw his pillow at her face. "Goddamnit, it's a special group of people who can use magic that mages and non-mages alike contact for jobs and assignments. Get it now, you dunce?"

The doll stopped his pillow with one tiny hand and shook her head with an annoying '_tsk_'. "You mean those things still exist? I thought they ended when magic users created the whole separate world. Seriously, who'd a thunk. How have you not been turned into ermines by now?"

Gray felt his head begin to swim as the pain in his body steadily began to increase. Its words made no sense. It didn't know about Fairy Tail? Magic guilds were gone? There was a separate world for magic users? People were turned into ermines?

His mind blazed at a million miles an hour. Possibilities were viewed and discarded as he began to assimilate the information. Maybe Warrod's spell had really messed up and tossed them so far into the future that Fairy Tail had been forgotten. Mavis' spell had cost the guild seven long years, and the circumstances had been very different at the time. For all he knew, everyone could be scattered across both time and space!

All he knew was that he was somewhere or sometime where they didn't know of Fairy Tail and where wizard guilds no longer existed. He needed to examine the situation logically. Panicking would only cause his exhausted body to pass out.

He tried to add in other nuggets of information he had uncovered. The dolls had spoken some sort of strange language when he had first encountered them, but that had changed after a time. It was possible to do that with some forms of magic. It would probably be a cinch for a mage like the little girl. But creating a separate world for magic users? That was impossible. No mage could do something like that, not even Zeref. Then Gray felt his eyes widen as he began to feel an eerie similarity to another situation he had previously encountered. One piece was needed to complete it.

He asked the doll with a shaking voice. "So, out of curiosity, where in Earthland are we? Is this Fiore?" His guess couldn't be right, could it?

The doll's chirping reply was the worst possible answer. "Nope. Welcome to Mahora Academy, Japan, foreigner."

Gray started panting, his breaths coming in heaving gasps as things began to add up. Not knowing Fairy Tail. The odd language the dolls had spoken. The girl's strange, insanely powerful ice magic and a completely different world. Gray clutched his chest. Pain flared throughout his body and the room began to blur. Then the room spun and Gray blacked out.

* * *

The next thing he knew someone was shaking him awake while shouting into his ear. Someone oddly hot hands and a booming, idiotic voice.

"Natsu?" Gray mumbled. His eyes started to flutter open.

"Oh thank God, I'm not alone." The dragon slayer's piercing voice filled Gray's ears. "It's only stupid Gray, but I'm not alone!" Gray opened his eyes and tried to say something, only to get his head bashed against the bed's headboard. "Gray! Stop being a lazy bum and get your dumb ass up and help me out already, or I'll punch you in the –"

A punch to Natsu's face shut the man up and sent him flying to the floor. "Goddammit Natsu, shut up and let me speak already!" He glared at the starstruck dragon slayer lying on the floor by his bed. "You don't fling people around in bed when they're recovering from being beat to death. Show a shred of decency for once!"

The dragon mage lifted his head and glared up at the bed. "Moron, punching someone when they were only trying to wake them up." Then he sniggered and pointed at Gray's midriff. "Ha! Maybe you should put some clothes on before telling someone else to be decent."

For a moment Gray froze in that familiar feeling whenever someone pointed out that he had undressed. Then he flung himself off of his bed and on top of the fallen dragon slayer, lack of clothes be dammed. He had been hunted for three days, beaten unconscious, and was now trapped in a strange land. Natsu's remarks were the final straw to his tattered patience.

"_Argh!_" he yelled._ "_This. Is. For. Every. Stupid. Thing. You. Just. Did." Natsu tried to fight back, but Gray kept breaking through the blocks and misdirecting the few punches that came his way. "And. For. Every. Damn. Doll. That. Made. Me. Bleed."

Gray smelled a hint of sulfur and saw Natsu's throat begin to bulge. _Oh no, he won't be pulling that trick off on me_, Gray thought to himself. Faster than Natsu could form and release his fireball, Gray brought his hands together and cast his own spell.

"_Ice Make: Hammer!_" Several hits and multiple cries of agony later, Natsu lay very quiet as Gray staggered to his feet and stared down triumphantly. Then Gray paused as his memories of the past few days came rushing back once again. What if Natsu had been there to rescue him?

"Well, shit," he muttered to himself. He had done a pretty thorough job on Natsu. "Now what do I do?"

"I'd recommend getting dressed as a start," spoke a sharply sweet voice spoke from his left. "Then you could follow me for a little discussion with some other guests of mine."

Gray's eyes swiveled to its source, the little girl who had thrown an iceberg at him. Gray assumed his casting stance and stood over Natsu's body protectively. Pounding Natsu with a hammer until he blacked out was fun. Letting an enemy kill him was entirely different.

The little girl gave a haughty sniff and strode into the room with a cocky swagger to her hips. Her black dress was gone, replaced by some kind of uniform with rips and patches where it had been recently burned. Gray mentally kicked himself for knocking Natsu out cold. _Next time, ask before you punch_. It was possible that he had fought the girl.

Following the girl was one of the puppets, one that appeared more dangerous than the others Gray had fought. More metallic and less childlike, she also moved with a deadly grace to her footsteps. Gray frowned as he watched her from the corner of his eyes. He didn't know if he could take them both on at once, but he would be dammed if he gave up before a fight even broke out.

"What's your angle, puppet girl?" He baited. Up close, she didn't look any older than ten years. Her magic was the real deal, and those eyes of hers didn't belong to any child he had ever met.

"Did Fairy Tail come to rescue me or something?" He noticed Natsu beginning to stir. The man's ridiculous durability to ice attacks was finally useful for a change. If it really was a combat situation, Gray just needed to stall for a short time. "Or did you get cold feet when it came time to kill me?"

A dark look crossed her features. A hint of menace crept into her voice as she replied. "Cold feet? You don't know how wrong you are on that count, little ice mage. And rescue? That would be a definite no. You are no longer my prey but my patient. Our little fight from before was an accident, one that I have corrected by healing your body and providing you with that charm on your wrist to translate speech."

That made sense with the warped take on reality Gray seemed to be experiencing. Her damned doll had been cleaning his room earlier, and he had not been restrained. But he didn't buy it just yet.

"Say I believe you," he said. "Why do you have Natsu's burn marks all over your uniform?" He injected steel into his voice and tested her knowledge of the moron. "He's generally hard to anger and not one to fight back. You must have really ticked him off."

Her eyes flashed such an intense shade of red that Gray almost froze her on the spot. "_Slow_ to anger? Not one to fight back?"

She advanced on Gray's position, and for a moment he could have sworn that her hair formed a golden halo of power behind her head. Maybe Gray should have asked a different question. But he was given no time to reply as she continued to advance.

"On my way to fetch this idiot and a few others, the moron blew down the door to my home and assaulted my servant." The girl bit every word out as though hoping to draw blood. "When my servant and another associate of mine tried to restrain him, he then started a brawl which leveled half of my home and destroyed priceless furniture. Furniture that I have spent centuries collecting."

A dark smile came to her lips, causing the hair on the back of Gray's neck to stand up" Centuries? But you look like you're only –" he cut off his words as she threw back her head and laughed.

"Oh no little mage, I am far older than I seem." She began circling his position. "You see, mortal, I am a vampire and I have lived for centuries in this world. They call me Dollmaster, Queen of the Night, Apostle of Destruction, and the Dark Evangel. There is no one in this world or the other with a higher bounty on their head, and none who have sought it have lived to tell the tale."

She stopped circling once Natsu lay between them. "Yet this impudent fool not only destroyed my home and assaulted my servant, he then had the temerity to repeat the same with myself. As such, little mage, he owes me a great debt. A debt that I will collect," she purred.

A slim hand reached out and fluttered over Natsu's aorta. The groaning fire mage shifted slightly at her touch, seeming to sense a threat in his blacked out state. Her fingers slowly traced his neck, fluttering lightly whenever they touched upon a vein. "Oh yes, you little bastard. I _will _collect. You can count on it." A rime of frost spread from her feet and a chill crept into the air.

Gray watched the girl's every movement as she stood over Natsu, with gears continually turning in his head. Assumptions and hypothesis were examined and discarded as he interpreted every word and gesture she had made since coming into the room. While antagonistic and possibly threatening to Natsu, there was nothing immediately hostile in either her words or her actions. Nor did any of her words contradict themselves.

He winced a little. Actually, her story about Natsu blasting into her home and tearing it apart made too much sense for him to disbelieve. The man was a complete idiot created for the sole purpose of collateral destruction.

Gray added in Natsu's apparent cheerfulness and things began to click. If the man had been on his game, there was no way Gray could have knocked him out so easily. While somewhat scuffed, he seemed to be physically alright with all of his clothes intact. Neither of which would be true if he had fought his way through the puppet horde Gray had faced; and the possibility of Natsu sneaking around a stronghold full of powerful enemies was flat-out impossible.

These thoughts led Gray back to the conclusion he had drawn shortly before passing out. Something had gone wrong with Warrod's spell, and they were no longer in Earthland. They were somewhere new, and this insane vampire could be their only way home. His hands slowly lowered to his sides as the notion gained strength within his mind.

It was time to see if he could get some confirmation. "I still don't trust you," he said as she continued to stroke Natsu's neck. "But I believe your story about Natsu... and I think that I need to ask you some questions about this world as well."

Her eyes flickered to his own. Unlike his first time meeting her, they were a pure emerald green. After a moment, though, she shook her head. "Not here."

Gray crossed both arms over his chest. "Then we're stuck. I don't exactly trust people who tried to kill me a short time ago. Especially when they claim to be powerful, century old vampires." The two stared at one another as tension filled the room.

Then Natsu's shrill voice was in his ear once more. "_Kya!_ Gray you bastard, where did you go?" The moron picked himself off of the floor, shoving aside the tiny vampire so forcefully that sent her into a nearby wall. He looked at her twitching form for a moment, then turned his head to locate Gray.

Upon finding his fellow Fairy, Natsu shoved his face into Gray's with a growl. "Hentai bastard. Take this!"

Natsu's fist buried itself in Gray's stomach, sending the air flying from his lungs. Another punch connect with Gray's face and the Ice Mage swore that he saw stars burst into being within the room. Woozy from the hit, he tried to stand but fell against his bed instead. His body may have been better but was far from recovered from three days of constant battle.

Natsu stomped over and stood over him, arms folded beneath his chest. "Got your attention?"

Gray scowled at the man and took a swipe at Natsu's face, growling when it missed. "Shitty flamer."

Natsu snorted. "Iceprick." Then a serious look came over his face. "We've got a lot to go over, Gray. So put some clothes on and hurry up." He then offered Gray an arm to help him stand. "You've probably already figured it out, but we're not in Earthland anymore."

The ice mage looked at his friend's face. It wore a look Gray associated with Natsu's failed quests to find his dragon father. He would often come back to the guild looking as he did now. Resolved to never stop trying, but possessing doubts as to if he would ever succeed. It did more to convince him that they were in over their heads than anything else.

Gray grabbed Natsu's arm and hauled himself up. "Yeah, we were just about to start talking about it when you woke up and started fighting me." He then shot a look towards where he had last seen the girl.

She had managed to regain her feet. Hair askew and eyes glaring daggers at Natsu, Gray could feel the icy power bubbling under her small form. He shook his head and backed away a little. Leave it to Natsu to piss off an ancient and insanely powerful vampire in her own home. Gray himself wanted nothing more than to leave her damn place as fast as he possibly could.

To facilitate that, he interjected before she could begin fighting his friend once more. "We'll put our stuff on hold until later as well, Evangeline. But in the meantime, I'd be grateful if you could hook me up with some clothes so we could get things started." He grabbed the sheet off his bed and wrapped it around his waist. "I'd like to have some sort of clothing before meeting with other people."

The vampire turned her head ever so slightly in the direction of her doll. "Chachamaru? Escort Gray to the wardrobe section and see that he is properly outfitted."

She then took a step forward towards Natsu, who finally seemed to sense that he could be in danger. "I'll take Natsu to join the others myself. We have matters to discuss before we arrive." A cold smile graced her features as Natsu frowned.

The tall doll whose name appeared to be Chachamaru took a step towards him. "This way, Mr. Gray." She gestured to his right. "You may follow me to your destination." Moving silently, the automaton exited through the door and turned left. Despite his better judgment, Gray tightened the sheet around his waist and followed her out of the room into a giant stone corridor. But he hung back quite a bit. If it tried anything, he would be ready.

Yet before he could do anything more, he heard a sharp series of booming blasts echo throughout the halls. Dust fell from the stone ceiling for a moment before silence reigned again. Gray felt his blood run cold once more. Maybe everything said earlier was actually a trap designed to split himself and Natsu. Maybe he had just made the biggest mistake of his life and left his friend to be killed by an insane vampire.

Swearing, Gray ran back to the room and poked his head back in, magic at the ready. "You alright Natsu? Don't worry man, I've got your –" What he saw made Gray cut off in mid-sentence.

The room was in shambles, with parts of it frozen and various things on fire. But instead of being locked in combat, the moron was running around with his head and hands encased in a single block of ice. A cloud of smoke and a string of furious curses coming from behind Gray's blazing bed told him where Evangeline was located.

A few seconds of watching Natsu and the girl trying to free themselves of the other's magic convinced him that whatever was going on was due to stupidity rather than hostility. "Morons, the both of them," he muttered to himself as he watched Natsu bash his frozen head against a stone wall. The man's face was turning purple, although it was tough to tell whether it was from the cold ice or lack of oxygen. "Why am I always surrounded by them?"

He left the two to their madness and made his way back to where the doll stood. The thing was waiting for him without a shred of emotion on its face. Other than the crazed doll with the butcher's knife, none of them had shown any emotion whatsoever. Gray gave it brief look and then nodded for the automaton to continue moving. It was time he understood what was really going on.

**Next Time in **_**Fairies of Negima**_**:** Gray gets some new clothes; Negi takes a small step closer to his father; and Natsu throws down the gauntlet.

A/N: This was a tough chapter to write. I wound up splitting the dang thing in two in order to try and maintain some semblance of flow, sending it through well over a dozen rewrites, and extracting about 6,000 words of material while I was at it. With that being said, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It also means that the next chapter will be out much sooner than I originally anticipated.

Charle = Carla. I prefer that version of the name, so it's what I'm going with.

Edited per usual by my excellent Beta Raiyoukai, a man who believes that Igneel is hiding within Natsu's soul.

Scary thing is that he's got a point.

Until next time,

Elsil


	5. Chapter 5: Carried Away

**Disclaimer:** The following story is a fan made work of fiction. _Fairy Tail_ and _Mahou Sensei Negima!_ are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.

**Chapter 5**

**Carried Away**

Gray turned around in the mirror as he checked out the new threads he had picked up. The girl's wardrobe had quite the selection for men and it had taken him a long time before he had settled on his current outfit. Clad in a new pair of dark grey cargo pants, black shoes, and collared white shirt that had been passed to him by a slim figured doll, Gray felt almost normal. He threw on the dark blue jacket with cream trim that had taken him forever to find and grinned.

The dolls may be psychopathic maniacs, but they sure knew their way around needle and thread. The outfit fit him nearly as well as the spirit-made clothes he had picked up from his trip to the Celestial Spirit World. He gave his sleeves a quick twist to straighten the cloth and turned around once more. The coat had just the right amount of flare to it as well.

Looking at the bobbing wisp that floated nearby, he held up four fingers. "I'll take four other outfits like this one, with an extra shirt for each, in the colors that we discussed." The wisp bobbed and flew away, leaving Gray alone with the robotic doll that had guided him to the wardrobe. Acknowledging her presence put a sour taste in his mouth, but that's where things would have ended. Then the doll had tried to brush her hand across his neck.

Gray's pulse skyrocketed as his mind flashed back to his three days of hell. One of his hands snapped up and instinctively grabbed the doll's hand. His other hovered over its elbow joint, a hairsbreadth from snapping it. Gray could feel his heart pounding as he restrained himself.

"Touch me without permission, doll, and I will break you." His eyes bore into her own. The damn doll needed to back off."We clear?" Gray tightened his grip and readied himself to make good on his threat.

The thing just stared at him with her head cocked to one side. If he didn't know better, it almost looked confused by his actions. But it was just a doll animated by magic, Gray told himself. Any emotion it may have possessed was only a simulation and not actually real.

Eventually it nodded its head and Gray let go of its arm. He stared warily at it, but the thing didn't move to touch his neck again. It merely stepped back and beckoned for him to follow once again. "This way, Mr. Gray. My Master and the others await us."

Gray felt a cold sweat run down his neck as he watched the doll move. His breath came in tight bunches and his muscles felt tight throughout his body. It was only with a supreme force of will that he calmed himself down and followed it. Thoughts of the past few days ran through his mind as they walked through the building's great stone corridors. The hellish contraptions had attacked him without mercy and hunted him without rest. They had punched, stabbed, and almost killed him. He had never been so close to death in his life, nor so powerless since his foolish attempt to stop Deliora.

A comparison he felt was apt given the nature of their master. Even remembering her caused Gray's blood pressure to spike. When she had been fighting Natsu in the room, the girl had felt to be on the same level as Elfman or Juvia. Powerful, but well within the scope of his own power. Yet when she had fought Gray, the girl's power had been unreal. He hadn't felt someone with that much sheer power since Gildarts, and even that might not be a true comparison.

Standing up to it had been like a badger trying to stop a crashing boulder. No matter how stubborn the badger was, the boulder would win in the end. And this particular badger had learned to be wary until he knew which power level was true.

Following the false construct soon brought him to a large amphitheater. Including Natsu and the girl, there were four people already present. Two strange men, one who seemed to be Romeo's age while the other looked to be a few years older than Gray. A closer look at the older one made Gray pause. Although his aura was kept tight around his body, the man radiated power. He would be one to keep an eye on. The kid, meanwhile, had quite a bit of power but seemed untrained in how to use it.

Gray looked back to where Natsu lay on a stone bench with his scarf over his eyes. Although his hair was damp, and a few tears were present in his ridiculous red shirt, the man's head was no longer encased in a block of ice; a significant improvement from the last time Gray had seen his friend.

A quick look at the girl showed charred areas on her uniform, but nothing serious by Natsu's standards. She also held two pieces of paper bearing Natsu's face in one hand, stroking them softly with a dark smile on her face. Gray shuddered and turned away, walking to his fellow Fairy sat. He eased down beside the man.

A few minutes passed before the dragon slayer took the scarf off of his head and looked at Gray with one eye. "You cooled down, Gray? Or do you still feel like going at it?"

_Typical Natsu_, Gray thought to himself. The man always knew how to push Gray's buttons. _He thinks I'm just as big a moron as he is. __What a pain to deal with_.

Gray kept his annoyance from his face as he replied. "I'm always cool, flame-brain. And while we can go whenever you want, let's keep it on hold for the time being." Things were too pressing to fight over, even if it was with Natsu. "You have any idea what's going on with us? Because I have a few guesses, and none of them are good news."

Natsu sat up with a grunt and placed both elbows on his knees. He looked Gray in the eyes for a moment before looking away again. That caused Gray to sit up straight and run one hand through his black hair. If Natsu was still acting like this then things were really bad.

"The old coot's spell sent us to an entirely different world," Natsu spoke softly. "But it's not like Edolas; no one here knows Fairy Tail or Fiore. And to make matters worse, you're the only familiar face I've seen since getting here. No weird fake versions, and no sign of any of the others from the hotspring."

The two sat in silence as the other three wizards watched them interact with one another. It seemed as though Gray's worst theory had come true. He and Natsu were well and truly screwed. With no knowledge of the land and no idea where their comrades were, this was a disaster. And judging by Natsu's face and the way he played with his scarf, the normally irrepressible mage felt the same.

Gray felt the anxiety that had sent him into a blackout begin to rise once again. This time he shoved it down, placing it into a box and closing the lid. He had not broken in any of his previous trials. This would be no exception. Stuck in a strange land and torn apart from their comrades, he and Natsu needed to come up with a plan.

They were Fairy Tail, and Fairy Tail stuck together. He slapped Natsu's shoulder, shaking the man out of his funk and grabbing his attention once more. "Alright Natsu. Let's swap stories and see what we can figure out. We'll find a way to save everyone – it's what we do." Gray held out his fist for Natsu to bump. The fire mage hit it with a grin and renewed fire in his eyes.

They spoke to one another for over an hour. When Natsu told Gray about how he had met the young Negi and his companions as they fought in a forest, Gray had nearly fallen off his stone seat. Picturing a naked Natsu shocking four girls as he tried to speak with them, fighting a crazy swordswoman and getting mauled by a bear only to end up trussed like a pig brought tears to his eyes. Natsu hadn't been nearly as amused and had almost begun fighting him once again, but it made Gray feel better to know that he wasn't the only one who had gotten his ass kicked. That and he could hold Natsu's status as a streaker over the man whenever he tried to call out Gray's own habit of undressing.

Gray recounted his own story as Natsu's came to an end. The ice mage had spent nearly an entire day trying to leave the resort and failed at every attempt. The place had no discernible exit, and the magic that flowed around him was completely unfamiliar. He had found food and water in the course of his search for an exit and initially thought the place to be deserted, or maybe a holding cell of some sort. He had finally given up for the day and gone to sleep in a comfy bed before he realized his error.

The first thing he knew upon waking up was that some little girl in a bath robe was screaming at him like a banshee. He had tried to jump on top of her to end the horrid wailing, only to miss and then scramble out of the way as she sent an iceberg the size of a hill at him. Takamichi had laughed when Gray told this portion. Negi, meanwhile, blushed and touched the tips of his pointer fingers together while Natsu rolled around on the floor in hysteria.

For her part, the vampire rolled her eyes and shot him a nasty look that promised revenge. Gray returned it with gusto. If she wanted revenge for him ending up in her bed unannounced, he would take a slice out of her hide for attacking him with a horde of blood-thirsty dolls. Two could hold a grudge.

As he continued speaking, Gray didn't go into details of the running battle that happened afterward. He only said that it had gone on for three days and ended with him bloody and unconscious. Natsu and the big guy Natsu called Takamichi had ceased their laughter and thrown hard stares in Eva's direction when he reached that part. The Negi kid just looked somewhat disappointed, especially when the girl sniffed and looked away.

The Fairies then turned to the others and spoke of their home. They glossed over the world's structure and their childhoods. Neither spoke of Igneel or Ur. They mentioned guild-mates and missions, and the feeling of family that had flowed freely from one Fairy to another. Speaking of them brought to life the bonds they shared, making it seem as though they could still see their guild-mates when they got back from their trip. It felt bittersweet to Gray. He scowled deeply and pressed Natsu to hurry through this portion of the talk.

The only battle the two mentioned in detail was the final battle with Zeref that had brought them to this strange land. Gray was surprised to learn that Natsu's opponent had claimed to be a demon. Along with Zeref's involvement, that most likely meant that Gray's own opponent had been one as well. The thought brought a sour taste to his mouth that complimented the bittersweet feeling from before. Yet again Gray had failed to defeat an enemy and those he cared for most were dealing with the consequences. _What a pile of shit_, he thought to himself.

Takamichi took their silence at the end of their tale to begin speaking. With Negi's aid he spoke about the rules regarding magic and mages. Gray felt his right eye twitch when both emphasized that mages could not openly use magic in most nations and that they would be turned into ermines if they gave away the fact that there was magic in the world. A whiff of smoke in the air told Gray that Natsu too was less than pleased.

The only upside was some place they called Magic Mundus, where magic seemed to be viewed similarly as it was in Fiore. This, though, came with its own set of problems. It seemed as though the arrival of Natsu and Gray within their world had caused some strange resonance to occur, changing the fabric of magic itself. Most of the magical nations in Magic Mundus were sitting on the information, but people like Takamichi had been dispatched to learn what they could about the situation.

The big guy didn't go into detail on the subject, but Gray gleaned that he would try to keep the existence of Natsu and Gray a secret for the time being. It seemed that there were some past problems in this world currently rearing their head which the two Fairies might become falsely associated with were their existence to become known. Natsu probably didn't understand, but Gray was thankful to the older man for his discretion. Trying to learn and move about the world would be hard enough without being labeled as high-value governmental targets. That had worked in Edolas, but it had been a dicey race to the finish.

A tense silence descended upon the amphitheater as the story came to an end. No one spoke as each gathered their thoughts. Then Natsu stood up and left the amphitheater with both his hands in his pockets. Gray ran his hands through his mussed up hair as he watched Natsu leave.

He tried to consolidate everything that he had just learned, but it was too much. Not being able to use magic freely, being stuck in another world, and maybe never being able to return home? Separated from Erza, Happy and the others? It was all too much to take at once. With a body wracking shudder, Gray rose from his seat and followed Natsu into the darkness.

His shoes clicked on the stone's hard surface and carried him away.

* * *

Eva saw Negi's face crumble as Gray followed Natsu into the false night of her resort. Although the boy lacked her experience at judging people, he made up for this lack with the empathy of a child. Eva felt a twitch in her own heart as she watched him. The feeling was swiftly crushed as she thought of the two Fairies and their reactions.

The pink-haired idiot had looked sad, but his fire was merely dimmed. Like a fire low on oxygen, he would soon recover after he got some air, leaving Eva and the others to clean up whatever mess he created. She let out a slight _'tsk'_ and shook her head in annoyance. Idiots were blessed with all of the luck to be able to shrug off heavy thoughts so easily.

The Ice Mage, though, was different from his companion. Although he too seemed to be an idiot, he also used his mind outside of battle. His thoughts would dwell and linger on the dark aspects, straining to stay in the light of hope. Eva knew that it was this connection Negi felt. The boy was of a similar mind and attitude.

What remained to be seen was how he would react to this situation. Eva felt a thrill shoot through her body at the thought. Would he react with hopeful determination? Or would he too fall into despair as he confronted a painful unknown? She looked at his shaking shoulders and felt the thrill double. Stifled sniffs reached her ears as he bowed his head to hide. Takamichi raised a hand to pat the crying boy on the back, but stopped at a hiss from Eva. The look on her face convinced him to drop his hand and light a cigarette in its place. Then the crying stopped.

"I want to help them." Negi's voice rang through the amphitheater, carrying clearly to her ears.

Casting a triumphant glance at Takamichi, Eva replied in a purr. It was time to push the boy. "Sorry, boya, but could you repeat that? I had trouble hearing you just now." He would rise or fall on his own, and she would know his mettle.

Negi slowly raised his tear streaked eyes to meet her own. Eva felt her undead heart pulse as he did. With a voice far more mature than his ten years, the child grated out his own reply. "Natsu saved my students and Gray seems like a good person. They are trapped here, separated from their friends, with no way to get home. Without us they have nothing. _We have to help them!_"

The boy's eyes blazed with a furious determination. They cried out that this time, he would not be denied. That this time, he would see his way met. For the second time since her fight with the child, the iron of his soul lay bared before her. It was a heady feeling, and Eva knew then what she truly wanted from him.

It was time to push him again. "That's all well and good, Boya, but good intentions alone never helped anyone," she said airily, with a wave of one hand. "It takes actions, and before you take action you need a plan made on sound information. Information that we do not fully possess, since both withheld information that -"

Negi slammed his father's staff against the stone floor, cutting her off. Eva felt her voice catch in surprise. The boy was actually showing some iron in his spine.

"They told us what we needed to know and more, Eva-san." Sparks seemed to fly from the child's eyes as he held his ground before the ancient queen of darkness. "Not one word spoken was a lie. We have received enough information, information that they _volunteered_. And I will come up with a plan or else I am not worthy to be my father's son."

As she looked at the young boy, Eva saw a flash of Nagi within the boy's face. He too would have helped these strangers from another world. He too would have stood before those he knew and asked for their aid. He too would have stared into her eyes, hoping that there truly was a light hidden within the vampire's dark shroud.

Eva grimaced and crossed both arms below her chest. Damn the both of them! Damn the entire Springfield line to hell! She was Nosferatu, the Apostle of Destruction, Harbringer of the End of Days! Vlad Tepes had nothing on her when it came to cruelty.

Yet looking into those eyes, she knew what she had to do in order to get what she desired. A grimace came over her face. She absolutely hated these sorts of deals, but she would get what she wanted in the end. Why did the kid always push her towards the fluffiest, sweetest option placed on the table? He was just like his father in that regard. Marshmallows, the both of them!

Her grimace still present, Eva chose her next words carefully."Very well Boya, you have made your point. You may cease your inane babble for the time being." She would be helpful, but her aid would not be without limits. The vampire was not yet _that_ far gone from her ancient habits.

"I will assist you in aiding them when the time comes, boya, provided that I receive compensation of my choosing. Compensation that I will declare at a later date and time." She held up one hand to forestall the boy's expression of gratitude. "And only of my choosing as well, brat. Accept those terms, and we will have a deal. Leave them, and I – _oof!_ "

The kid's flying tackle took her completely by surprise, knocking the air from her lungs as he rode her body to the floor. His tears and cries of thanks were completely lost on the undead mage as she struggled to breath once more. The damn kid was killing her with gratitude!

"I accept Eva-san, I accept. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The discussion ended shortly afterward, and the three soon split up to sleep in separate rooms. Eva had agreed to host one of the Fairies while Takamichi would take the other. She had fought and struggled against the condition, but eventually caved in to the boy's tearful face and Takamichi's logic. Or so they thought.

Having one of the two strange beings under her thumb would be the first of her compensation, and it came under the guise of helping the boy. The two idealistic fools had bought it completely, leaving her in the clear to pursue her own goals. She rubbed a thumb over one of her fangs in delight as she slipped into her newly rebuilt room. Cold and simple, it now contained the final remaining piece of ice remaining from Gray's battle against her dolls. She settled down into her bed and gazed into its depths.

With unfettered access to one of the two Fairies, the secret behind their strange magic would soon be hers.

* * *

Alone in his bed, Negi woke up with a great yawn from a night of fitful nightmares. He sat up and blinked sleepily in the bright light. The stuff seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. It took him a moment to remember he was not in his usual room with Asuna and Konoka.

He yawned once more as he stumbled out of bed. Waking up this morning was harder than usual for some odd reason. _There has to be something wrong with the bed_, he thought to himself as he reached for his undershirt and brought it over his head. _Too soft, maybe?_ He had even heard the soothing sound of booming magic shortly before falling asleep. Listening to it as he fell asleep usually gave him peaceful dreams.

A knock sounded on the door. He twitched his tie into place and smoothed his shirt, giving his outfit a critical look in the mirror. Only once it looked neat and tidy did he walk to the door and open it. Chachamaru was standing there with her hand raised to knock a second time. She was wearing her customary uniform, clean and well pressed like usual.

He met her with a smile and followed his sister Nekane's advice. Always compliment a woman when greeting them. "Good morning, Chachamaru-san. Did you do anything to change your outfit? It looks great on you!" She squeaked.

Negi blinked in confusion._ Huh? _"Chachamaru-san, are you alright?" He stepped in close so he could take a better look at her features. Her face looked less pale than usual and her pupils were slightly dilated. Maybe something was wrong with her coolant flow? "Should I call for Eva-san?" He reached for her in case she was in danger of collapsing. "Don't worry, Chachamaru-san. I'll carry you to wherever she is right away!"

She dodged his arms with a wave of her hands and stepped back. "I-I-I'm fine, Sensei. You-you do not need to hold me at this time. _Please!_"

Negi put his hands down to his side and stepped backwards. "Okay Chachamaru-san." His smile came back to his face. Knowing that his student was okay and not hurt was all he needed.

Chachamaru wrung her hands as the two stood in the hallway. She opened her mouth and shut it several times while Negi stood and waited patiently. Finally, she seemed to settle down and spoke.

"My Master asked me to bring you to the amphitheater before breakfast. Natsu and Gray have called it and are already waiting for everyone."

"Ooh, really?" The thought of meeting them put a pep into Negi's step and cleared the remaining fog from his brain. "Excellent Chachamaru-san! Please, lead on." With a nod of her head, his android student walked down the corridor. Negi closed his door and walked quickly to catch up to her. Once he did, she shortened her long strides to make it easier for him to walk beside her. Negi smiled at the kind gesture.

Today would be an excellent day, and it would all begin with this meeting. Negi had been thinking of all sorts of plans during the night as he struggled to sleep but needed a better grasp of the two men and their abilities before he could figure out anything permanent. The personalities of the two men would be key to determining which older mage they would accompany. Skipping alongside Chachamaru, Negi tried to work things through in his head once more.

Whoever accompanied Takamichi would need to be calm and levelheaded. The older man had a demanding job, one which required him to meet with all sorts of people. Calling him a spy would be going too far but Negi suspected it was pretty close to the mark. Pairing him with a person possessing the wrong temperament could cause Takamichi problems in that line of work.

Yet on the other hand, the same could be said for whomever lived with Eva. The vampire was frightening, and Negi did not want to imagine what might happen if she was forced to host someone who did not respect her rules. If there was some kind of disagreement between her and the Fairy, things would probably get messy. He would also probably get blamed for it since it was his idea in the first place.

Unsought, the picture of a fully powered Eva on a bloody rampage came to mind, screaming his name as her horde of dolls pillaged the Academy. He shuddered. On second thought, maybe the less aggressive of the two mages should stay with her. Otherwise his student might decide to suck her teacher dry. To distract himself from getting trapped in those thoughts, he tried engaging Chachamaru in conversation on the way.

"So, Chachamaru-san, how did Eva-san give birth to you? Was it a long childbirth?" The android fell against a nearby wall. Negi could hear gears within her body whirring at incredible speeds as she turned a beet red face in his direction. Negi stopped to observe. Had he said something inappropriate? He had just wanted to learn how such an amazing creature as herself had come into being.

Maybe he should rephrase the question. "Chachamaru-san, is Eva your mother? Or is she your father?" If anything, Chachamaru's face grew even more red. "I would love to know, just in case you ever need a magic user to perform maintenance on your body."

Chachamaru collapsed to the ground in front of him. "_Eh?_ No, Chachamaru-san, please come back!" Negi was panicking. He had just been trying to be nice. What happened? "Don't die on me. Please! Oh my God, Asuna is going to kill me. Please wake up Chachamaru-san. Please!" It took ten minutes to bring her back.

The android seemed rather skittish upon her awakening, but had allowed him to help her stand with a faraway look in her eyes as he held her arm. Things took another five minutes to clear up from there as she blushingly explained that she was a combination of magic and technology, and that Evangeline was more of a creator than a traditional parent figure.

Negi's eyes had sparkled at this new information. To think that magic and science were capable of intertwining to such an extent was incredible! It was a whole field of magic he had never explored.

As the two of them continued on their path to Eva's amphitheater, Negi tried to gain as much information from his student as he could with their limited time. It was a short walk, but by the time they neared it Negi had already learned quite a bit. She had just finished explaining the fundamental basis for magical programming when they reached the building's entrance way.

"So you're saying that all magical hardware operates using base twelve as the numerical basis while the values of software are changed in purpose and assignment according to Nordic runes?"

The robot nodded her head. "Indeed Negi-sensei. This fundamental difference makes it quite difficult to bridge the gap between technological and magical programming. Master and the others had to create an entirely new language to ensure all of my parts would operate correctly." A small smile grew on her face. "As such, I can smoothly integrate into any known form of networking, regardless of it being based in science or magic."

Negi let out an _'ooh'_ of appreciation as he nodded to himself. The range of powers and abilities Eva displayed constantly amazed him. The discussion on her creation was rather fascinating. He had not known terribly much about magical programming and was finding his lack of knowledge appalling. Just imagining the sheer complexity of the task made him marvel at the speed in which it was accomplished.

Chachamaru had been created two years ago while her initial research and development only took a single year. He had never heard of something like that happening ever before. He looked up at the tall girl in wonder. Chachamaru was a fully functioning person, someone who was kind and gentle to those around her. She was amazing, and Eva had played a major part in creating her.

It helped Negi to make up his mind on a subject he had been considering since he had first fought against Chachamaru and her master. The only way he could catch up to his father would be if Negi had a powerful teacher, one who possessed more knowledge than any of his old teachers in Wales. It would have to be someone who was already at or near his father's level. He wanted it to be Eva.

"You're a cheeky little dish, boya, making me wait before my breakfast." Eva's growled greeting made Negi jump. She was floating in the air above the entrance way and staring down at him with a hungry look in her eyes. "Morning. Now take a seat and shut up. I'm hungry, so you'd better not do anything to make this take any longer than is needed. Otherwise you'll be my little morning snack."

Chachamaru patted his shoulder as she left his side and moved to stand by her master as the vampire floated down to a nearby seat of stone. Her black dress fluttered as she did, revealing ruffles of cream and violet.

"_Well?_ Hurry, dammit! I'm hungry!" She snapped. "_Move it!_"

_The dress really seems to fit her mood_, he thought to himself as he hurriedly chose a seat next to where Takamichi sat in his slightly rumpled suit. Negi would wait awhile before asking her to be his teacher. She was too scary at the moment.

He pushed that thought out of his head and turned his attention to Natsu and Gray. Both men were close by and appeared to have gotten little sleep. Gray stood with arms crossed by a nearby pillar, and Natsu lounged on the floor where he played with his ever present white scarf. Negi could sense a faint magic emanating from it but could not tell what type. It was curious, but the overall physical appearance of the two men drew Negi's attention.

Both Faeries sported multiple bruises on their faces while deep bags lingered under their eyes. Thinking back to the magical booms he had heard last night, Negi connected their new appearance with Natsu's gift of fighting anyone. This in turn brought his mind back to his earlier concerns about the temperaments of the two mages. He could feel the pressure of the decision weighing down on him as a physical sensation.

Send Natsu with Takamichi and possibly create a diplomatic incident. Or keep the fire mage nearby and thereby place Negi's own life in danger from the Ice Mage's retribution._ Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad,_ Negi thought to himself. Why did Natsu have to be so violent?

Gray's voice brought Negi's mind back to the present. "You guys probably made some plans last night after we left. We'll hear them out in a little bit, but first, we wanted to thank you for leaving us alone last night." Gray gave Negi and his two fellow mages each a curt nod.

Natsu sat up and nodded his head in agreement as well. "Yeah, we just needed some time to think and work things out with our fists. I had to beat some sense into droopy eyes over there, and he cooled off some of my crazier ideas." He closed his eyes and breathed deeply before waving a hand in his friend's direction. "Gray and I came up with some stuff while we were going at it, but I'll let him do most of the talking. He's better at explaining this boring talking stuff than I am."

The black-haired mage snorted and straightened his back against the pillar. "Thanks for the backhanded compliment, slant-eyes. But even a moron like you has a point." He faced the Negi and his fellow mages, looking at them with a cold gaze. "Natsu and I have two requests that we'd like you to take into account with whatever plan you guys came up with. First and most importantly, the moron here and I can't stay in the same place until we find the rest of our friends."

The boy wizard adjusted his glasses as he looked between the two young men in surprise. He had not anticipated this outcome. It was definitely far more logical for the two to split-up from one another. One could search freely while the other would stay stationary as a base of operations that could serve as a known safe point. But to voluntarily leave your friend behind, with little to no hesitation, when you were trapped in a strange world you knew nothing about? That made no sense to Negi.

It also seemed to strike a cord with Takamichi, as the big man was quick to speak up. "Although it fits with our plan, are you really certain that you do not want to try to remain together? Is there some bad blood between you that we should know about, or some kind of magical condition?"

Natsu and Gray shot a look at one another. Negi tensed, wondering if they were about to fight. Then they did the last thing he expected. The two men fell to the ground laughing.

"_Wahahahaha!_" Natsu yelled. "Bad blood? Ha! And Magical conditions? Only in the sense that Gray's shitty blood has been completely frozen over for years and has made him into a compulsive stripper."

Nearby, Gray's laughter cut-off and he aimed a kick at the laughing Natsu. "You're one to talk, fire veins. You're dumber than a rock and have probably boiled the crap in your veins dry by now." He landed a clean hit on Natsu's face and pumped a fist in the air as his friend's head smashed backward into the amphitheaters flagstones. "Ha! Suck it, moron!"

With a roar, Natsu leaped up from the floor and pounced on his friend. "Don't kick me in the face, you perverted stripper!" Negi then watched as the pink-haired man proceeded to punch, bite, and kick any part of the other man within reach. Gray fought back, pulling Natsu's hair and slamming his knees into the fire mage's stomach.

As the two rolled across the floor in a screaming pile of limbs, Negi blinked slowly and turned to the more experienced mages. "Takamichi, Eva-san, are they okay?" He was confused. He had never seen anything like the two men before him.

To Negi's left, Takamichi was chuckling while Eva gave the pair a flat stare as an eyebrow arced in annoyance.

Eva turned to look at Negi and spoke in a tight voice. "They're as okay as they will ever be, boya. Your father was like this with his closest friends as well." Then her eyes flashed. "But if those two don't stop soon, I may just kill them."

He nodded in agreement, then blinked as her words fully registered. His father had been like the two men in front of him? The same two men who looked as though they were trying to kill one another?

A corona of flame surrounded Natsu's fist and arced towards Gray's face. Gray blocked it by encasing his friend's arm in ice with a victorious laugh, only to soon cry out in pain. Natsu had ignored the fact that his arm was frozen and was now slapping his friend with the icy appendage. Negi winced at the sound of the hits and Natsu's crazed laughter. Negi looked at Takamichi for confirmation. Surely his father, the Thousand Master, had not acted in such a way.

The big man nodded as he absently scratched his freshly trimmed beard. "Nagi never could act serious to save his life. The old days of Ala Rubra were filled with this sort of nonsense." He grinned and rotated one of his arms. "Looking at them having that much fun almost makes me want to join in for old times sake."

A piercing gaze came on his face as Negi looked towards the two Fairies. Looking closely, he could see that they fought in the most ineffective way possible. Vital points were ignored, and their blows lacked any sort of refined technique. And though snarls and curses were thrown between them, somehow, it felt as if they were actually happy. It was as though the two were acting out some sort of strange, demented bond.

A twinge of jealousy ran through him at that thought. It seemed as though his father's back kept getting further away. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he seemed to do, Negi always came up short of his father. The list of things his father excelled in kept growing longer and his back kept growing more distant. Negi had no one to do that sort of activity with, and without such a partner he would never become like his father.

Negi felt his thoughts fall into a deep depression. Thus he was unable to stop his body from flying off its seat when Eva's rage finally blasted forth.

* * *

"_Enough!_" Eva's voice roared through the amphitheater, sending Gray's pulse skyrocketing. The vampires magical aura flared to life with a dazzling intensity and a blast of ice shot out at the two Fairies.

Gray did his best to block her attack, but it came too fast. The rolling wave of ice pummeled slammed the two men into a stone wall on the far side of the amphitheater and he felt his half-healed body creak under the impact. With an effort, he managed to get his wits together long enough to dispel her initial assault. Then the next assault came.

Gigantic spears of ice flashed into being around the two men in a gigantic cage of death. Gray and Natsu danced to avoid the constructs. The dragon-slayer took one to his side and went flying once more while Gray pressed his hands to the ground by his own feet. He canceled the girl's magic but could feel his arms shaking from the effort. He really needed a few more days of rest before taking on someone like her.

Walking up to them was the girl in her dark outfit. The ground froze around her feet as black shadows moved around her shoulders. Her brilliant green eyes narrowed at the two trapped mages and Gray let out a pissed '_tsk_' as he tried to cover up his body's shaking. The woman really got on his nerves.

"So long as you are both within my dominion, you will not fight one another." She finally ground out as she stopped in front of their cages. Ice crackled as she clenched both of her tiny hands into fists.

"You will obey my words as if they were God's own law, jump when I say jump, and crawl when I say crawl. Or I shall carve my name upon your miserable little hides and turn you into whimpering shells of your former self."

She turned to stare directly at Gray. "Do I make myself clear?"

Gray's eyes glittered in rage. He had been hunted by this woman and her dolls for three days. She had ambushed him and beaten him to within an inch of his life only to heal him and act as though she had done nothing wrong. Gray knew he was no match for her, but to let her insult him like this was too much. Then an explosion from his side caused Gray's mouth to click shut or get a lungful of smoke.

"Ya know, I don't think you did." A torrent of flame surrounded Natsu's body, reducing all of the ice to steaming vapor. He made a fist with his fiery right hand and slammed it into the open palm of his left. "So let's finish what we started before."

The man gave a brilliant grin as his eyes lit with a golden glow. "You've got me all fired up now."

**Next Time in **_**Fairies of Negima**_**:** Asuna gets bored; Konoka chases Setsuna; and Natsu vs Eva round 1 – Fight!

A/N: I hope that you are all looking forward to the fight as much as I am looking forward to writing it. Things just wouldn't have worked out between the two casts without a genuine throw down between two of them. I'm just glad that Eva doesn't have her complete diorama in operation by this point or Natsu would be completely iced.

Important blurbs: 1) I've put a pairing poll up on my page and will be keeping it up for two or three chapters. I've kept out most (but not all) characters whose pairings are already set in stone, but there are a few on the bubble. Voting for the ones you most like will help sway my final decision. 2) the use of 'Mr.' versus Japanese honorifics in this chapter was intentional; it'll rear its head on occasion in future chapters as well. 3) The upcoming fight will show many of the differences in magic and power between the FT and Negima casts. Think of it like a video game's Alpha test for future fights. The fundamentals and much of the ornamentation are in place, but there's still a lot of work left to do before the product is finished.

It'll be some time, about a month or so, before the next batch of updates. I'll try to move faster... but I want to do the upcoming battle justice. Additionally, if you ever have a question, feel free to review or send me a PM. I will rarely answer questions about future plot-lines with anything other than the most vague of terms, but I am happy to explain anything in published chapters.

Credit to _Raiyoukai_ for once again Beta-ing this chapter with excellent efficiency. His quick thinking saved my awesome badger metaphor XD

And on that note, I am ending this horribly long A/N. May I never write another one of comparable length.

Until next time,

Elsil


	6. Chapter 6: Oh, my!

**Disclaimer:** The following story is a fan made work of fiction. _Fairy Tail_ and _Mahou Sensei Negima!_ are owned and written by Hiro Mashima and Ken Akamatsu respectively. Please support their official releases.

**Chapter 6**

**Dragons, Vampires, and Scientists! Oh, My!**

Fire raged within the stone amphitheater as the hiss of melting ice echoed within its walls. A puddle began to form around Natsu's feet. The icy wetness seeped into the unfamiliar shoes he had been given.

It did not bother him. His entire being was focused on the small figure in front of his eyes and the impending conflict between them.

The woman's eyes had shifted from their usual emerald to crimson. He could make the tips of fangs elongating beneath her lips, and her scent had changed from anger to unadulterated fury. A slight tightening of the skin around his neck began to cut off his breathing.

He fought off the spell and stood unflinching. No amount of force, great or subtle, would ever make him bow his head to an opponent on its own.

A growl rumbled its way from deep within his chest as she stood unmoving. If she wasn't willing to make the first move, well, he would be more than happy to get the party started.

Natsu took a deep breath and gathered magic within his body. "_Fire Dragon's Roar!_"

"_Sagitta Magica: 313 arrows of Darkness and Ice!_"

A giant cloud of black lines burst from her right hand and sped toward his molten torrent. The two streams of magic impacted with an ear shattering roar, tearing up pieces of stone and sending them flying through the air. Natsu blinked his eyes from the resulting cloud of dust before quickly reopening them.

He looked around but couldn't find her form. "Come on, Eva," he taunted. "We're just getting warmed up here. That sure wasn't enough to put me down for the count." Natsu cracked the knuckles of both hands. "But if ya can't take the heat, you shouldn't have poked me awake."

A chuckle reached his ears through the air. Yet something about it was not right. The laugh sounded as though she was right next to him, but he could also hear her voice coming from another part of the resort.

"So the lost child thinks himself a sleeping dragon of fire? A creature of such might and power that even a vampire must tread lightly in its presence." Her echoing laugh redoubled in intensity. "How pathetically adorable of you."

The cloud of dust and smoke had cleared but Natsu still couldn't see her. That laugh was beginning to get on his nerves. He gave a growl of irritation as he tried to focus on the fainter echo. It was coming from much further away. If he could keep her talking then he could pinpoint her location and beat her face to a pulp.

"Keep running yer mouth, scaredy cat. I don't see ya anywhere nearby." Natsu let a cocky note enter his voice as he sniffed the air. "Did I scare yer old bones a little too much when I roared? I'll try to pull my punches a little so I don't break you in our fight." When he did not hear a quick reply, Natsu pumped a fist in victory. First blood went to him. Served the scaredy cat right for running away.

"You truly are an idiot, aren't you?" Eva's voice grated. "Do you really think that I would fight you in my own home after seeing your style? You, a moron who has no care or respect for what he breaks? Ha! Unlikely."

Natsu listened to the echo intently and began to move towards one of the amphitheater's blank walls. The amphitheater was making this more difficult, but he was close to pinpointing her location.

"I'm more than ready to fight you, but I've chosen a different setting for our little duel."

_Dammit!_ Why did his opponents always place conditions on fights? Zero and his ego. Erigor and his train station of hostages. Jellal and his end of the world nonsense. Erza and her 'first you must prove yourself' crap.

"You can find me on the beach, my little fire breather." Eva's voice whispered. "I hope you aren't scared of getting a little bit of sand in your eyes. Ta ta for now."

Natsu scowled as the echoes of her voice faded. His flames raged in an inferno of fire, and he was vaguely aware of the other men flinching away from their heat.

Natsu Dragneel, Igneel's son and the dragon slayer of fire, scared by a little girl who ran away from _hi__m_? "Oh, it's on now." He sniffed the air once more and finally picked up her scent. It was coming from the same direction as the echoes. "You picked a fight with the wrong guy, scaredy cat. And I ain't gonna take it easy on ya either."

A blast of fire created a hole in the wall of the amphitheater. He stepped through it as fire played over his body. The hole was a start, but Natsu would not be satisfied until he had pounded her smug little face with his fiery fists.

* * *

Asuna tapped her finger against her bed while Konoka bustled about their kitchen. Hours had passed since they had parted with Natsu and Negi and the twin-tailed girl was beginning to think. The two sure were taking their sweet time.

She glanced at the clock on their wall and sighed. Leave it to a kid to make his caretakers worry. "Konoka," she called from her spot on the bed, "how long was the meeting with your grandfather supposed to last again? Didn't Negi say he would be back with the pink pervert in tow by now?"

"Um, I think that it was supposed to be over some time ago." Then Konoka paused in her bustle to give a quick _'eep' _of dismay. "Oh shoot! I forgot to mention that Grandfather called while you were busy fighting with Iincho in the hallway. He mentioned that Negi had some sort of assignment near Eva's place and would probably be back late."

"Pink-haired pervert? Did Aniki get his hands on a new girl I haven't heard about?" Chamo's tiny voice chirped from his drawer of underwear. The ermine's furry face practically shone with perverseness. "What's her age? Are her measurements any good? Is she perky in all the right places? Come on, tell me all the details and don't leave anything out. This is important stuff here y'know?"

Leave it to the peanut gallery to make her even more annoyed. Asuna shot him a look that could have curdled milk. "No, you flippin idiot, it's not a girl. It's Natsu, remember? The naked bastard who flashed half the girls in our class?"

The rodent let out an admiring grunt and began rummaging through the contents of its drawer. "Ah, yes, truly a man after my own little heart. He showed great initiative with that; I give him a 7 out of 10, with points deducted for poor follow-up. If only I could get Aniki to be half so daring."

Well, the ermine's priorities had not changed, much to Asuna's displeasure. His furry head disappeared only to reappear moments later, his beady little eyes peeking out from beneath some girl's striped panty. "Can you imagine what it would be like if Negi was as open with his male charm? I mean, come on! With the girls in your class I'd be rolling in Pactios by sunset!"

Up on her bed, Asuna redoubled her venomous stare. There was no was that she would ever allow something like that to occur so long as she drew breath. She pictured strangling the furry menace to society with her own two hands and smiled. She could get away with it. The only two people who would object to it would be Konoka and Negi, and getting them out of the picture as Asuna did the deed would be easy.

"Too bad it would be murder," she groused softly. "Otherwise I'd only have to deal with those maniacs from PETA. And what they didn't know about wouldn't hurt them."

Her eyes followed Chamo as he began to clean himself with reckless abandon atop his stockpile of pilfered undergarments. On second thought, even PETA would probably award her some sort of medal for removing the ermine. Chamo gave animals everywhere a bad rap.

With a harrumph of disdain Asuna tried to put the perverted rodent out of her mind. Unless some kind of kinky situation or turn of phrase came up he would stay quiet in his little corner. It was one of the few good qualities he possessed. She gave a second harrumph. It was probably the rodent's only good quality.

Meanwhile Konoka had continued to move about the room with a cheery hum. She was in the midst of pulling some pan out of the oven by the time Asuna turned her attention back to the dark-haired girl. The sight of Konoka cooking something made Asuna's stomach grumble; her roommate's food was a greater temptation than the apples of Atalanta. It was so good as to be nearly sinful.

A fragrant smell of cinnamon and baked dough made its way to Asuna's nose and she began to salivate. "Ooh, that smells delicious, Konoka-chan. Can I have some before Negi and the idiot get back?"

She jumped off of her bed and moved to where she could try to grab one of the freshly baked items from the tray. Her hand snaked out to snatch one of the tempting morsels.

Konoka gave it a sharp slap with a wooden spoon. "Sorry, Asuna, but these aren't for you or Negi-sensei." Konoka gave a giggle as she rescued the plate from Asuna's grasp. "They're special."

The dark-haired girl then began wrapping up the baked goods in thick paper, carefully shielding them from sight with her body. Asuna tried to get close, but Konoka boxed her out more effectively than an NFL receiver stranded on Revis Island. The girl had moves when it came to protecting her cooking from thieves.

"Awww, c'mon Konoka. Can't I have even one?" Asuna could feel the saliva almost dripping out of her mouth as she gave up on trying to obtain one by force. It was cruel and inhumane for Konoka to keep whatever she had made from her roommate. They were close friends – nay, they were more than friends, they were comrades-in-arms in the struggle to raise and educate their ten year old teacher in the ways of life and morality. Surely Asuna was entitled to a few bites of Konoka's divine cooking; raising Negi and protecting him from the grasp of her classmates was tough!

Yet Asuna's continued pleas were to no avail. Konoka just shook off her protestations and pleas with her customary cheerfulness and bustled about their dormitory, cleaning everything in sight. She even refused to let Asuna lick the pan and whacked her with it when Asuna tried to do so anyway!

Whomever the baked goods were for was officially on her shit list. The only possible exception to that was if they were for Takamichi, but Asuna doubted that was the case. Konoka didn't feel that way towards guys and the wrapping on that paper definitely indicated it was of a romantic nature.

Soon enough, the items were packed away and every item used to make them cleaned or watered down within their sink. Asuna stared at the neat package with a longing look in her eyes.

Then a knock sounded from the door and Asuna walked towards it with a grumble. "Coming!"

The sound of Asuna's grumbling stomach as she moved caused her anger to rise. As Asuna turned the handle to open the door, she got ready to give the person a piece of her mind. "I don't know who you are or what you're doing at someone's doorway this late in the –" Asuna's voice cutoff as she got a good look at the person who stood at the doorway with their hand still raised. "Ah, Setsuna! I didn't know you were coming over."

Asuna's grimace disappeared as she smiled at the swordswoman. It was good to see the other girl in a less stressful situation than the battles in Kyoto. Setsuna's uniform was neat and tidy, while a soft smell of soap drifted on the air. Definitely an improvement over the battle-worn attire they had worn in the forest. "It's good to see you. By the way, did you happen to see Negi on your way here? The damn kid's late for dinner."

Setsuna bowed her head in greeting and placed her shoes next to Asuna and Konoka's by the room's entrance. "It is good to see you as well, Asuna-san. Yet I must apologize, for I did not see Negi-sensei on my way over." The girl placed her wrapped sword by her shoes. "Ojou-sama asked me to stop by on my way back from the dojo. She said that she wanted to speak with me about something."

The black haired girl turned her head to peer into the kitchen area. "Is that baked cinnamon buns I smell, Asuna-san? Those are my favorite – how did you know?"

A light bulb went off in Asuna's head. Konoka's super cheerful demeanor of the past few hours while Asuna sulked and waited. The neatly wrapped baked goods forbidden to Asuna. Negi's late meeting and Setsuna's appearance at Konoka's request. They all added up to one inescapable conclusion.

Looking behind her, Asuna noticed that Konoka had yet to notice Setsuna's appearance. _Dangit, the things I do for my friends_, Asuna thought to herself. She patted herself down and noted that she was still decent to go outside. It was a good thing she had yet to change out of her uniform.

She patted her pocket again to make sure her spare set of keys were there before calling out. "Konoka, I'm going out to find Negi-sensei. I'll be back with the brat in a while and we'll probably eat out, so please don't wait up for me."

Setsuna's eyes widened as Asuna paused and looked at her with a grin. Setsuna could see Asuna's next move coming, and Asuna delivered her next statement with perverse glee. "Oh, and Setsuna is here to see you, Konoka. She said that she'll keep you company while I'm out looking for Negi and the moron."

"_Se-chan's here?_" A loud crash sounded from the kitchen and Konoka's head and upper body soon appeared, covered in some white powdery substance. "You came! You're actually here! _Se-chaaaaan!_"

Asuna evaded the flour covered missile that was her roommate and grabbed her shoes before the two could fall on top of them. An impish smile graced her lips as Setsuna spluttered and tried to push a squealing Konoka away. It would serve as ample revenge for the baked goods while making Konoka happy.

"Take care of Konoka while I'm gone, Setsuna," Asuna said. "I'll see you two in a bit."

She plucked an apple from a nearby bowl and slipped her shoes onto her feet. Carefully stepping around the two girls, Asuna opened the door and stepped outside. It had just gotten dark out, so she would have to hurry if she wanted to pick Negi up and make it back in any reasonable amount of time.

* * *

It seemed as though luck was with Asuna as there was nearly no one on the backstreets of Mahora. Most of the shops and buildings along her route were closed and Asuna moved past their darkened windows at a brisk pace. It would have been a different matter if she had taken the downtown route like many of her classmates, but only Negi would be dumb enough to do that during a holiday season. Maybe Ku Fei or Yuna or Makie and the cheerleaders too, but they were special cases and did not count.

She quickly came to where the city met the forest and tossed her devoured apple into a trash receptacle. It was enough to quiet her growling stomach down, and it would only take half an hour of walking before she reached her destination. She passed by a crowded restaurant stand, only to quickly look back at its sign.

It was her classmate's restaurant, the Chao Bao Zi. However, it was open far earlier than usual. Could Negi have stopped by the restaurant before going to Eva's cottage? It was possible. Asuna scratched her head and thought about it as she stared at the sign. Yeah, the kid spoke to his students whenever he spotted one. It was definitely worth investigating.

Asuna walked over to where her classmates manned the stand's counter among a crowd of people. It seemed as though everyone had already placed their orders and were just milling around until their food was ready. She saw someone try to speak with Chao, only to get completely blown off by the odd girl. That was unusual.

Asuna was able to reach the counter with ease and wasted no time. "Hiya Chao, Satsuki. Mind if I ask you a few questions real fast?"

Satsuki shook her head and kept her attention on the restaurant's stove. That was fair. She was the chef after all and was busy with all of the orders. "Okay, I gotcha. How about you Chao? Got a moment?"

The exotic girl did not respond and Asuna frowned. She did not like being ignored, and it was unusual for Chao to zone out. Satomi was supposed the absent minded scientist, but Chao was apparently attempting to give the other scientist's identity a go as she stared intently into a blank wall.

"Hey, Earth to Chao," Asuna said as she snapped her fingers. The other girl really was out of it, worse than Asuna had ever seen. "Come in, roger."

Chao's head whipped around from where she had been trying to burn a hole in a wall with her stare. A look of surprise was on her face and she gave a start. "Oh, it's just Asuna." The Chinese girl patted her hair buns and gave her usual strange grin. "How can I help you, ne?"

Asuna stared at her classmate and shook her head. Class 3-A was full of people with eccentricities, but she hoped that Chao was not absorbing Satomi's anti-social behavior. That would change the balance between the vocal weirdos and the silent weirdos in the class.

"Have you seen Negi-sensei tonight?" Asuna asked. "He was supposed to be showing his cousin around and the two are really late in coming back for dinner."

She felt her stomach give a growl as the smell of Satsuki's cooking came to her nose. Maybe the apple was not enough after all. "If he doesn't have a good reason for being so late, I swear that I'll punch the little brat right out of his diapers and into puberty. Snot-nosed little runt!"

Chao laughed a little from her place at the counter. "As much as I would like to see that happen, ne, I don't believe that such a thing is possible even for you, Asuna. Besides, there's really no need to be so violent. You're right behind them."

Asuna's attention focused on Chao with laser-like intensity as the girl continued. "Negi-bouzu and Natsu have already been here, ne. They picked up their food with Takahata-sensei about forty-five minutes ago and walked into the forest."

"_What?_" Asuna screamed. She clenched her hands into fists and pounded the stand's wooden counter top. "You mean that little kid is eating food as I'm looking for him? And he's with _Taka__hata-sensei_too_?_"

The other girl nodded, still smiling her strange grin. "That is what I said, ne."

_How dare he_, Asuna thought in outraged horror. Tears ran down her face as Asuna wept from frustration. This unexpected development cut her deeply, and Chao's continuing chuckles did nothing to ease her comfort at the kid's brazen betrayal. Not only was the boy late, but he was eating with Takahata-sensei in Mahora's scenic woodlands. Without even telling her that the older man was on campus and taking Natsu along with him to boot!

The only possible response was to make the boy pay for his vile misdeeds. For the crimes of eating and spending time with Takahata-sensei without telling her, Asuna would hunt him down without mercy. His screams would strike fear into the hearts of ten year-old boys everywhere. Not even the immortal loli could protect him from her wrath.

Yet before she could set out on her path of righteous vengeance, Chao lightly touched Asuna's arm and spoke. "Before you visit your wrath upon poor little Negi-bouzu, I have a question of my own for you, ne. Would you mind answering it before you leave?"

Chao's light tone snapped Asuna out of her funk. She was in Chao's debt for the information. A question or two answered in return was a small price to pay. "Sure thing Chao," Asuna answered. "What can I do for you?"

The girl leaned away from the counter before speaking hesitantly. "I'm curious about the man who came with Negi-bouzu today, the one who was on the train back from Kyoto with us." She opened a paper fan with a quick snap of her wrist and hid her face behind its edges. "What can you tell me about Negi's cousin, Natsu?"

Asuna blinked as her mind blanked. Well, as far as questions went, this was definitely a tricky one to answer. What was their cover story with Natsu again? It had something to do with travel, but Asuna could not remember the specifics.

"Um, well, you see..." Was he supposed to be a traveling businessman? No, that wasn't it. His personality would put the lie to that suggestion in a heartbeat. Especially if someone like Chao were to spend half a minute in his presence. Was he a fellow teacher come to help his little cousin out on the job?

She barely stopped a snort from popping out as Chao continued to stare from behind her fan. Like hell Natsu would ever do something like that. He was way too active and impatient for something like studying or teaching. He was just some strong lunkhead whose only talent was physical education.

That was it! Now Asuna remembered the cover story. Natsu was an athlete who had come to Mahora in order to further his training. She did not remember exactly which sport he was supposed to be involved in, but Negi could handle the specifics.

Asuna gave a malicious grin; she could have some fun with thr story, and it would serve the pervert right for his initial greeting. The two men could handle any problems that came up as a result of her edited story on their own.

"Well, he's a moron, but that's only to be expected," she began. "From what Negi told me the guy is training to become a world class athlete and supposedly heard that we had some great facilities and terrain out here. He's a runner of some sort, and while he's definitely got some talent, he doesn't seem to be all that smart. I'm not sure which side of the family he's from but he's nothing like Negi."

She leaned in close so only Chao would hear the next bit. "Unlike sensei Natsu's also a total perv. He was naked when he met me and Sakurazaki in a forest by Konoka's house. He's got a body but is completely shameless. He also totally tried to grope Mana before she chased him off with Ku Fei's help. The guy is an enemy of women everywhere."

The Chinese girl twirled the fan in her hands. "Really?" She said hesitantly. "Natsu seemed like quite the gentleman when he came by earlier, ne. We really seemed to make a connection with one another. He was so firm and strong when he took me." A pout came to her lips and her eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. "I don't know if I could take my innocent heart being played with."

Asuna vigorously nodded her head. Chao needed this talk for her own good. "It's the truth, Chao. I saw it with my own eyes. If you value your self-worth as a woman, you'll stay far away from him. If you get too close he'll try to do horrible things to you, I just know it."

So what if Asuna was taking it slightly out of context? Chao seemed to be paying rapt attention, giving Asuna a feeling of confidence in her piece of fiction she had never felt in her life. It was usually Misa or Misora coming up with these things as Asuna watched from the sidelines.

Besides, the man was keeping her from dinner, had joined Negi in keeping her away from Takahata-sensei, and actually did everything she was saying in one form or another. A little shading of the truth was an act of justice to save her fellow classmate from his dirty paws.

Then the full meaning of Chao's words made their way through Asuna's self-righteous haze and slammed home. "Wait, what did you say? Did he do something to you too?" She grabbed Chao by the shoulders and shook the slim girl. "Chao, what did he do to you? Are you okay? Did he do something perverted?" Chao's head bobbled violently as Asuna continually shook the girl's body, but she was somehow able to nod her head in assent.

"Damn that man moves fast!" She yelled. "I knew I shouldn't have let him out my sight! _Argh!_" Asuna had only been trying to get the older boy in hot water with her story, but was the man actually a true enemy of women? Could he have actually fooled Asuna into thinking that he was just a simple moron? Between Chamo and Negi Asuna was already at her limit. If Natsu truly was a pervert and was already trying to assault her classmates, Asuna might have to change her focus to the pink-haired moron and leave Chamo on his own. The furry monstrosity was bad, but he could only do so much damage.

Chao's next sniffed words ended any thoughts Asuna had about making the switch in focus. "I merely engaged him and Negi-bouzou in conversation-ne," Chao was pouting as she spoke. Chao never pouted – ever. "But... after we exchanged pleasantries and spoke for a time, the man took me by the waist... and claimed my maiden's kiss."

The small girl gave a shudder. "It was so shocking that I couldn't move, ne. He was just so strong and powerful that I melted into his arms."

Asuna's hands dropped from Chao's shoulders as her mind grappled with the shock of what she had just heard. Her classmate regained her balance and moved back to her original position while Asuna wrestled with the revelation of Natsu's deed.

"That animal! That _beast_!" She growled. He had fooled her completely and hurt one of Asuna's classmates. Forget about Negi. That grudge could wait until later. This new development took priority.

"When I find the two of them and Takahata-sensei, I am going to give him a beating that he will never forget. I promise you Chao, I shall avenge your first kiss." Asuna slammed a clenched fist into an open palm. "I swear it!"

Chao nodded her head solemnly as she moved the fan to cover her face once more. Her soft voice easily carried to Asuna's ears from behind the beautiful tool. "Thank you, Asuna. I may not have known that Natsu was such a terrible person without you until was too late." She then gave Asuna a forlorn smile. "I know that I can count on you to take care of things."

Asuna scowled as she nodded her head. "Hell yeah!" She turned to run into the forest, only to pause for a moment. She looked back at her classmate. Some things needed to be said before the moment passed.

"Chao, even if we don't talk much, I'm here if you ever need me. 3-A sticks together." She gave Chao a bright grin. "See you in class!"

* * *

Chao watched Asuna jog into the forest. Once the other girl was safely out of sight, she turned to Satsuki and whispered that it was time to close the shop. Satsuki gave a questioning look but did not dispute her classmate. She merely nodded, finished the order she was on and began to put things away. The girl's ability to sense the mood was one of the things Chao truly loved about her. Chao placed a 'closed' sign on the counter top and stepped out. They would get together to analyze the results of the soft opening before the Festival.

Chao had more important things with which to deal and thought of them as she headed home. Her conversation with Asuna had been highly informative. While she had obviously exaggerated certain portions of the story, there were nuggets contained within the falsehoods that Chao could use to gain further information. Most importantly, Asuna had confirmed Chao's suspicion that Natsu was no ordinary man. She doubted that he was related to her great ancestor, but at the very least he was a mage of some sort. Meanwhile, it had been child's play to twist the girl's own tale against her. Chao giggled to herself as she pictured the probable results, drawing stares from nearby people in the street.

From their brief interaction, Natsu had seemed like a capable man. No one who was not could have caught her by surprise as he most definitely did. Yet even so, both he and Negi-sensei should find their hands full in dealing with a vengeful Asuna. The orange-haired girl could be surprisingly inventive when it came to punishing those who had done wrong; the title of baka ranger truly suited her in more ways than one.

Chao reached her dormitory and slipped her key into the lock, twisted and opened the door. She passed through the living area and soon entered her private room, sitting down in a chair located close to her bed. Once she was certain that she was alone and unmonitored, Chao engaged the room's security protocols, took out her custom made phone and punched in Mana's number. The other woman picked up quickly, and after a quick exchange of professional pleasantries got down to business.

A quick promise of payment and everything Mana knew about Natsu was passed along. His sudden appearance in a battle fought against demons; the power of his flames that caused the suddenly berserk creatures to screech in pain; his evasion of Mana and Ku Fei in the woods; and his abnormally high resistance to Mana's magic infused bullets.

Each by itself was an astounding feat; contained within one individual and it seemed as though the man would need to be dealt with – soon. A wrench thrown into her plan at this stage could ruin everything; she had come too far to let such an occurrence happen.

Then Mana dropped the bombshell of Natsu's origins and Chao felt her mind come to a momentary halt. Natsu was a trans-dimensional traveler? She tried to flatly deny the possibility, but the mercenary merely laughed and said that even Evangeline had accepted it as fact.

After a full minute of science passed as the genius thought to herself, Mana stated that she expected to be paid in full within twenty-four hours and ended the call with a click. Chao was left alone in the darkened room with her troubled thoughts. Mana had given her necessary information but none of it boded well for her plan.

The possibilities of trans-dimensional travel and all that it entailed were exploding within Chao's mind. She raced through the theoretical possibilities and tried to draw practical conclusions from their examination. Such travel was indeed possible, but it would take an immense amount of energy in order to achieve... and the precision necessary to pull it off was beyond the intricacies of her time travel calculations. Meanwhile, the probability of something like that happening by accident was closer to zero than it was to one. Such an event would require even more power than a planned one and require an incredible will to survive it unshielded.

Chao placed a raised a hand and began to knead her aching head. Natsu was no mere wrench in her plans. He was a raging volcano that had just gone off under her feet, and she was at a complete loss on how to deal with it. A powerful mage she had not anticipated joining her Honored Ancestor was terrible on its own, but it was his place of origin that was the true problem.

Accidental trans-dimensional travel was fraught with repercussions. For all she knew Natsu was only one of many individuals from his world and there could be multiple powerful mages about to enter the picture. Combined with the knowledge that traditional methods of investigation were useless on someone from another universe and everything about the man represented an unparalleled threat to her goals.

Such a threat could not remain unknown. He was present and would need to be dealt with... there was only one guaranteed route to gaining accurate information. For better or worse, Chao would need to deal with Natsu herself.

Her course of action chosen, Chao quickly dialed another number and lifted the phone to her ear. Thinking about something could only take you so far. It was time to bring her other partner up to speed and modify the plan.

After a few rings, the genius girl's call was answered with a perfunctory hello. "Hakase, we've got a major snag in the plan, ne. A new player has entered the board on the side of magic... as the result of accidental inter-dimensional travel."

Chao yanked the phone away from her ear as her co-conspirator's voice exploded in shock. She held it there for several seconds with a scowl as she waited for the clamor died down. Sometimes there were drawbacks to announcing the existence of previously theoretical phenomena to scientists. "Ne, ne, Hakase. I understand the implausibility, and yes, we can go over the specifics of it soon." She sighed as Hakase responded sharply. "I promise. It interests me too, ne."

Mollified for the moment, Hakase's voice quieted and gave Chao the opportunity to address the true point of her call. "He seems to have joined forces with Negi-bouzu, and there may additional people that I have yet to encounter. In order to deal with the situation, I am asking that you take the lead in finishing the robotic army. Our best bet in learning more about this unusual occurrence lies with the man connected to it, Negi's supposed cousin... Natsu."

She touched her lips with a finger and smiled softly. It was quite enjoyable to mix business with pleasure for once. "I'll be undertaking direct observation of the subject myself, ne."

Chao's smile grew wider as she began to plan the next series of moves with her fellow scientist. She really would have to thank Asuna properly for their little discussion at some later date. It would prove most useful in her pursuit.

* * *

Gray kept his eyes on Natsu's back as they moved through the resort. The fire mage was leaking fire like a broken sieve but he was keeping it together for the most part. The boiling heat had died down and the display was now mostly for show. Which was rather incredible given his fiery temperament. Usually, he would be screaming at the top of his lungs and blowing up everything in sight as he searched for his opponent.

Then the guy blew a larger than necessary hole in a nearby wall and began to scream at the top of his lungs. Gray plugged his ears with both hands and grimaced as one of Natsu's usual tirades washed over him.

"_Kya!_ When you accept my challenge, you're supposed to stay there and fight me, not disappear and tell me to follow you!" Another hole was blasted in a second wall as Natsu violently demolished anything between him and the beach. "Dammit! First Erza, then Jellal, and now this chick." Another wall and another massive hole blown in it. "People just need to stay and fight me. _Argh!_"

Maybe the guy was not keeping it together all that well after all. If he had reverted to form, Gray couldn't really blame him. Evangeline's disappearance and taunts had ticked the ice mage off as well. They had lodged within the growing portfolio of things he disliked about the woman.

Several broken walls, a pillar reduced to molten slag, one blown up Gazebo later and Natsu appeared to have calmed down enough for Gray to speak with the other man. "Alright, Natsu, quick recap," Gray said as they walked through the corridors. "You've just picked a fight with a pissed off, older-than-dust, holier than thou, miniature dark mage... who just so happens to be a goddamn vampire."

Natsu gave a grunt in response but Gray kept pouring it on. If he let up for even an instant the other man would ignore him in his rage. "A vampire that not only specializes in ice magic, but can hurl blasts of ice the size of a small mountain faster than it takes Laxus to sneeze. And to make things even worse, she just so happens to already be pissed at you for wrecking her house, assaulting her servant, and setting her body on fire... twice."

His guild-mate gave no reply at all to Gray's words. If anything, Gray's words had only made him more angry. The ice mage cursed to himself.

He needed to pierce that wall of anger so Natsu could better direct it. The man needed to be calm and rational before he fought the icy bitch, not pissed off and blind like he usually was against a first time opponent. She needed to lose, and if Natsu was the only one with a clear shot at the bitch, then Gray would help him do it if Gray had to pound it into the man's head with a literal hammer.

Gray gave Natsu's shoulder a shake to make sure he was paying attention. They had arrived at a descending staircase which wrapped around the resort, leaving him precious little time to accomplish his goal. "Sound about right, Flamebrain?"

"Yeah, ya got it so far, Gray," Natsu growled as he shook off his friends hand and tensed his legs to jump. "And you get twelve points for being right, too. But then you lose eighteen for being a stripping pervert and get stuck below zero, right where you belong."

The dragon slayer pushed off the stone staircase with a powerful thrust of his hips, falling to the ground far below. Gray's right eyebrow twitched at Natsu's jibe, but he only archived its annoyance for a later date. He slammed his hands together and created a slide of ice that he used to follow the impetuous fire mage. Gray's body was strong, but he was not a monster like Natsu.

Negi and Takamichi hovered in the air and descended slowly, pacing Gray as the ice mage kept his eyes locked onto his friend. Down below, Natsu's feet flared with a blast of fire to slow himself down. The three men caught up to the fire mage as he stood in a crater of melted sand and stone, sniffing the air intently. His posture changed as the three men neared, and he began marching towards a point on the opposite shoreline.

"Of course I'm right, you complete and utter buffoon." Gray said upon catching up to Natsu. "But more importantly, if you get all that then pay attention to this piece of advice: If you don't take her seriously from the get-go you won't be around to see the finish line. She wasn't messing around with us back in the amphitheater, and if you hesitate or pull your punches, she's going to bury you beneath this sandy little beach before you can so much as say 'ow'."

The pink-haired man waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. I got it Gray. Eva is mad and powerful and she wants to beat the shit out o' me for ticking her off. Just stop talking already so we can move faster and I can pound her into the ground." Smoke darted out of his nostrils. "She's a tough opponent that's hurt you, insulted our guild and called me out. No way am I going to delay this fight."

A growl ripped from Gray's throat as they began walking through an area without walls. If that was how Natsu wanted to play things then fine, Gray could play that way as well. If Natsu refused to take his words seriously then maybe Gray's next move would pound some sense into him.

In one quick motion, Gray stepped to Natsu's side slammed him against a nearby pillar and held him pressed against it. Natsu's eyes flashed angrily at Gray's actions, but the ice mage refused to give him a chance to react. "I don't think you do, Natsu." Negi gave out a startled _'eep'_ of surprise somewhere behind Gray's back, but Gray did not care. He just gave another growl and shoved his free forearm into Natsu's chest.

"This is important, Natsu, so listen to me for one goddamn moment." Gray was shouting at this point. He was not given to long speeches or words without cause and Natsu had better remember it before things got ugly. Gray had a lot riding on this fight and it was time that Natsu understood everything he was taking onto his shoulders.

Gray pressed Natsu against the stone pillar with as much force as he could muster. "Fighting her before nearly killed me, and that was when she thought I was just an insect to be squashed. You've managed to piss her off more than I did, and unless I've gone and morphed into a pile of Erza's shit, she's going to be aiming for your head from the moment you step onto the sand. She could give frickin Gildarts a run for his money in sheer power, but that's only the surface of her abilities."

Gray leaned in close as Natsu continued to stare unblinking and unmoving in his grasp. "Her real power is her mind. She hid and watched me fight for three days straight, Natsu. Three. Entire. Days. She's a sadist, and she'll be willing to wait until you're in no position to fight before she lands her final blow. You can bet that she'll do her best to get into your head before she starts anything. And when she does, she'll tear you apart faster than you can blink."

He released Natsu and stepped back, turning his head to the side. Just talking about those awful three days took it out of him. But Natsu had to know what he was facing.

"You're still reacting to the pain from getting separated from Happy and the others. Our little scrap last night and whatever you've done since coming to this place haven't solved the issue. But use this chance to take out all of the pain we both feel on her, alright?"

Gray felt tired. Putting it out in the open, the problem they were both dealing with, hurt. "It's there, in both of our hearts, Natsu. The loss we feel from our missing comrades. The pain of knowing that we may never be able to go home." He turned his head back around and held out a clenched fist. "So get it out of our systems with this fight before we do something even crazier. 'Cause if you don't, I swear that I'll destroy whatever she leaves behind."

Natsu stared at Gray's outstretched fist. With a nod, he formed his own fist and bumped it against Gray's. The two men held the gesture and smiled grimly at one another.

"I've got it, Gray. I guess we're just the sort of guys who need a good smackdown before they can move on from the past." He grinned and pushed Gray's fist back with his own. "It just wouldn't be the Fairy Tail way otherwise, would it?"

Gray nodded his head in return and dropped his fist. "You know it man." He and Natsu looked at one another for a long moment, then silently dropped the stare and continued their walk. Soon enough they came to a veranda overlooking the water. Gray could see Eva in the distance, arms crossed over her chest and black dress rippling in the wind. He gave a jaunty wave and watched as Natsu stepped hopped onto the sand. It was all up to the dragon slayer.

* * *

Evangeline waited impatiently as the pink-haired fool as he stepped onto the sand. The others stayed at their post on her veranda where they would be out of the way. She put them out of her mind. The pink-haired fool was coming to give her a down payment on what he owed, and she was more than happy to collect.

She had to give him credit for being brave. The man strode towards her, never breaking eye contact. Perhaps he could back up his bark with a little bit of bite. It would make his eventual defeat all the more enjoyable.

The man stayed silent as he walked towards her location. She watched him closely. Every movement he made, the sway of his hips, the posture of his back and the positioning of his arms. Everything hinted at a deep familiarity with battle that was rare in someone so young. A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. Oh, the coming fight would be enjoyable after all.

Enjoyable enough that the anticipation made her want to prolong it. Battles were waged on more than just the physical and magical levels, and despite his potential the Springfield boy had been such a bore when it came to their own duel.

"So the lost little boy wants to play with me after all," she purred. He gave no reaction to her words, but that was no deterrent. She would keep speaking until her words drew blood. "What would drive a spoiled little child such as yourself to fight someone so far above them? It's not just a strain of masochism – oh no, that would be far too simple."

His movements indicated that he would be a close quarters combatant. Judging by the impact she had felt upon his landing he also possessed incredible strength. She would have to keep her distance or strike him where he least expected it.

"Did I make you mad when I placed you in timeout? Or is it that you wish to avenge your friend's three days of suffering in this very place?" She peered around and pointed towards a nearby rock. "I believe that he almost died over there. One of the Chachas ambushed him from the water as he tried to hide."

Not a muscle twitched out of place the man's body. His breathing remained even and his gait stayed smooth. It seemed as though he would be a tough nut to crack. "Neither of those? Hm, then I wonder what it could ever be," she mused. She would have to delve deeper.

"If it's not the present, then it has to be the past. Something great enough to fray your nerves and drive you to recklessness. Something that would wound you to your core and affect your mind beyond your ability to consciously control." The section of last night's talk about his friends came to mind and she drew a conclusion. "Something... like abandonment."

His left eyelid twitched and Eva knew that she was on to something. It was time to go for the throat.

Her eyes glittered as she spoke. "You not only feel the pain of being separated from them, but feel as though you have _abandoned_ them. And guess what, little boy?" Her eyes glittered as she spoke more. "You did. And you may never see them again."

His roaring attack was telegraphed all over his features. "_Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!_"

_How dull of him_, she thought to herself. A quick shundou placed her behind his wide open back. When he did not immediately respond in kind, Eva felt another pang of disappointment. "Too easy," she muttered as his head swiveled from side to side in puzzlement.

Her disappointment did not stay her hand. "_Ensis Exsequens!_" A blade of energy formed around her hand that she brought down with a slashing blow.

* * *

Asuna gasped as she stepped over the broken door and entered Evangeline's cabin. The place looked as though rival gangs of Yakuza had broken into the place and tried to settle their differences on the spot. Bits of furniture lay scattered about the house and the smell of burned wood made the girl wrinkle her nose.

"Eva? Chachamaru? Is anyone home?" Asuna called out into the still air. No one answered her as she moved deeper within the torn up dwelling. "Takahata-sensei? Negi? Natsu?" Still no one answered her.

She moved from room to room, trying to find some sign of their presence. The living room and entranceway were the worst hit by far. It looked as though most of the items within them were beyond salvaging, and Asuna could only imagine what the dark mage's reaction would be upon seeing them. Giving her penchant for the dramatic, she might actually rip their still beating hearts from their chests.

The bedroom was the least torn up and appeared as though no one had spent any time in it anytime recently. Actually, it felt as though no one had been in the room for days. This bothered Asuna as there had been plenty of time from their return for the diminutive vampire to return to her cabin and relax in the comfort of her own home.

Asuna's search ended in front of the only fully intact door on the cabin's ground floor. She could feel a slight tingle from beyond its wooden frame. Curious as to why the tingling door was still standing, she opened the door and peered inside. There was a steep wooden staircase going into some kind of basement. With zero lighting to guide her steps.

"Of course the only remaining area to search in a vampire's home is a staircase descending into absolute darkness," the girl muttered to herself as she placed one hand on the nearby wooden rail. "I swear, if something pops out and attacks me down there I am going to _kick_ Negi's ass so hard that even his great, great, great grand kids will feel it." After a moment's pause, wherein she chewed her bottom lip intensely, Asuna took the plunge and descended.

* * *

A collision of magic shook the Resort's air as two elemental forces clashed.

"_Nivus Casus!_"

"_Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!_"

Natsu gritted his teeth as the explosion's concussive force from the two blasts ripped through his body. That attack had been strong to bust through any of Gray's creations but had only been able to nullify her own icy attack. Her ice wasn't anywhere close to being as powerful pound for pound, but she could summon up more of it in an instant than Gray could in an entire year; and if he gave her any room, she came up with big spells like that one. The stuff was starting to get on his nerves.

He peered through the resulting smoke of his own attack to try to locate her. Their fight had taken them from the amphitheater to the seaside portion of her resort, and it gave her little room to hide. The only downside was the salty breeze interfered with his sense of smell, making him waste critical moments as he determined her proximity through the strength of her scent.

A flash of movement to his right focused Natsu's attention to that area. It was just enough to save his hide as Eva was on him, stabbing at his chest with an energy sword shooting out of her hand. _Gray's got to be sitting up there watching in jealousy_, Natsu thought as he read her incoming attack. _His ice blades have nothing on that thing._

He dodged the first two swipes with a sway of his body and counterattacked with an exploding left fist, only to grunt in pain as the third and fourth blows nicked his chest. The woman grinned as her sword bit home and he growled in discomfort. His counterattack hadn't left him open; she had just been too fast, and it had taken every ounce of speed and flexibility he had just to reduce the depth of her cuts. He had no time to linger on the pain as she continued to rain blows upon him.

She moved like no one he had ever seen, using some trick to move faster than his eyes could follow. A sudden displacement of air behind his neck caused him to throw his body to the ground and roll to his right. He continued the roll as the woman's scent filled his nostrils and the faint hum of her sword stabbing sand came from where he had first dropped. This was the third time she had used that particular move, and the bloody gash down his back reminded him just how painful the sword's bite could be when coupled with that damn technique.

He completed his roll and hoisted his body up on both arms to deliver a flaming, spinning kick that caused her to back off and buy him some time away from that damn sword. He flipped himself upright and gathered flames in his left arm. "_Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow!_"

"_Sagitta Magica: 101 Arrows of Ice!_"

The two spells collided, sending a cloud of steam into the open air. As Natsu looked at his opponent through the hazy cloud, he tried to take stock of his options. The only reason he had managed to avoid being turned into a diced ice sculpture was thanks to his many fights with Erza and his battle against Jellal in the Tower of Heaven, but it couldn't go on forever. He hadn't been able to land more than a glancing blow against her, and every time he thought he had her she let loose a blast of those magic arrows to counter whatever he threw.

Her big spells seemed to take longer to cast, but the damn arrows sure packed a punch when she put enough of them together. Natsu flicked off a bead of blood going down his chest from one of the open cuts her sword had made in his flesh. For a moment, he saw her eyes track the streak of crimson before snapping back to his face.

It was time to change things up. "Alright, enough with the warm-ups," he called out at the steam cleared up. "I've got a handle on that disappearing trick of yours, and that frickin sword won't be able to save your tiny ass for long." Natsu clenched his fists and slammed them together in a shower of sparks. "So let's get this party rockin already."

She moved her sword into a mid-range guard and motioned him forward. Her teeth gleamed in the resort's light as she bared them in his direction. It was an invitation if he had ever seen one.

He threw himself at her in an all-out attack. The energy sword gave Eva an extended reach over his fists, and combined with her ability to disappear at will, limited his options. He led off with a blast of fire from his right fist and followed up with a fiery spinning kick that placed her on the defensive for the first time.

A laugh bubbled from her lips as he closed in. "So the pup has a bite after all. Impressive." She flung a small number of dark arrows at his head without chanting, forcing him to twist violently in order to avoid their sting. "But not impressive enough. Show me more of what you can do."

He ducked a slash from her sword and took a blast of snow and ice to his face instead. He continued to close in, using his other senses to predict her movements as he directed his fire to melt the frozen water she had flung onto his face. Sensing his temporary weakness, her movements became even faster, forcing him to dodge each blow by a hairsbreadth.

Natsu blinked his eyes open just in time to see her disappear. He grinned to himself and flung an arm out to his left, catching Eva by surprise as she reappeared. He grabbed the petite vampire by her wrist and twisted it until the energy sword couldn't be used against him.

A grunt escaped her mouth as he gave it an extra twist. "No disappearing this time, little scaredie cat." He clenched his free hand into a fist and buried it in her stomach. A whoosh of air escaped her lungs and he cocked his arm back for another blow. "It's time to pay for insulting my friends and beating my guild-mate within an inch of his life."

He slammed his fist into her stomach and heard her cough. The sound of something wet hitting the sand reached his ears. "When you did that, you managed to piss off a member of the worst guild there is to anger. You've got a debt to be paid – and it can only be paid through force. Feel a dragon's wrath."

Fire gathered in his hand as Natsu once again drew his fist back for another punch. "_Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!_"

The point blank attack picked Eva's body up and flung her out of his grasp. He could feel his blazing knuckles tear through her clothing and impact the soft flesh beneath, probably leaving scorch marks with their passing. Flames covered her body as they fed off her clothing. A dragon's wrath was not intended to be pleasant. A dragon's wrath was intended to maim and kill. He lost sight of his opponent when her body disappeared into the sea with an enormous splash.

For a time, Natsu just stood and watched the area where her body had hit. He swiveled his eyes along the beach as well. There was absolutely no sign of her, and for the first time since the fight had begun Natsu wondered if he had gone a little too far. She might be a prick and an immortal vampire, but she still had the body of a little girl. It probably couldn't take as much damage as a normal body, and Negi had mentioned that she was under some kind of curse as well.

Then Natsu felt his knees buckle as a tiny hand knifed into the side of his neck. "That's enough out of you for the moment," he heard Eva hiss through the cloud of pain in his head. "We won't be repeating that again anytime soon."

He clutched at his neck with one hand and stumbled to face her.

"_Fire Dragon's -_"

She never gave him a chance to complete his attack. A hit to the side of his skull caused stars to appear in front of his eyes and a wave of vertigo to sweep through his stomach. His legs gave out completely and he fell to his hands and knees with the wet sand beneath him.

"I don't know who or what you are but that hurt dammit!" Eva's voice sounded furious, almost enough to make Natsu laugh through the pain. Almost.

"Most dragons have weaker flames than the stuff you just hit me with, and trust me brat, that's no mean feat." He finally did manage to force out a chuckle at that. Then her next words made Natsu feel a tingle of fear for the first time since the fight began. "But no more trying to draw things out. Now it's time for you to learn your place like the insect you are."

She had been taking it easy on him? Then a blow crashed into his side, followed by a second to his stomach and a third to his face. She piled the blows on faster than he thought possible, with each one containing the force of a hammer. Any thought of her taking it easy on him flew out of his head as Natsu felt his body flying through the air from the force of her attacks.

His body flipped and gyrated through the sky as she used him in place of a punching bag. He could feel his body move one way, then suddenly her fist or foot or some other part of her body was there to meet it and send it flying in another direction. No one he knew in Fiore could do something like this, not even Jellal and for all of his many faults the man was powerful.

Natsu lost track of the blows after the fifth combo. He could see darkness creeping in at the edges of his vision as the world continually moved from the rain of hits leveled against his body. Each one threatened to send him over the edge and he could feel his teeth rattling in his head anytime one of her slim fists connected to his upper body. Tears formed in his eyes from the one time she aimed a blow at his lower body.

The thunderous hits began to reach a crescendo and he forced himself to stay aware. He would not let her beat him into unconsciousness, not when he had yet to play his trump card.

With a final volley of blows, Eva finally allowed his body to fall limply to the sand. His back lay against its warm softness, and he shut his eyes for a moment to marshal his strength. He could hear her breathing steadily nearby, lightly winded from her exertion. But lightly winded was far better than how his body felt after being swatted around like a volleyball for the past minute.

Now was probably a good time to use his final ability before she hit him with anything else. She had let him rest long enough. "Nap time's over," he muttered.

Natsu opened his eyes and slowly climbed to his feet. Every inch of his torso felt as though it were on fire, and he would probably be feeling the pain for well over a week. The shirt given to him by Negi and the girls was in absolute tatters, allowing him to see dozens of areas where the imprints of tiny knuckles had left reddened marks on his thick skin.

The only indication he gave of the pain he felt was a single crack of his neck. Then he settled into his basic stance and summoned his final technique.

"_Lightning Flame Dragon Mode._"

* * *

Asuna stood before some type of weird diorama, in a room located deep under Eva's cabin. "Definitely magical," she muttered. "No way in hell is that glow made from technology, not unless Chao or Hakase are involved, and I'd like to see either of them in Eva's basement."

A strand of hair strayed onto her face as she moved closer. She blew it out of her eye as she continued speaking to herself. "Fat chance of that ever happening. The two of them probably don't even believe in magic. And if they did, they'd probably write the whole thing off as some kind of weird natural thingie, or something more science-y sounding."

She placed her hands on top of the thing and placed an eye against it. Every now and then she thought she saw signs of something moving within it, but the things were gone the moment she concentrated her attention on them. "They probably barely know that she's in our classroom, let alone that she's one of the most powerful magic users alive. I sure didn't, and I'm more involved with our whacked out group than either one of those two."

As she continued to mumble to herself about her crazy classmates and the beating she was going to give their teacher, she eventually noticed a spot on the floor that seemed to glow. It was some kind of inscribed circle, with geometric shapes and lines running through it. She squatted down so she could get a better look at it.

Upon closer inspection it looked like the same circle that Negi had used to summon her and Setsuna to his location during the battle to save Konoka. Sure she couldn't remember what it looked like exactly, but it seemed close enough. She placed a foot on it and closed her eyes as a flash of light surrounded her body.

When she opened them once more, she was standing on a mist-shrouded platform at the end of a narrow bridge. "Wha-Wha-What the hell?" She gasped. This was unreal. "What just happened? Where am I?" Her head swiveled around like an owl's, and she gave a small cry of pain as it twisted too far. In her sudden panic, she ran to the platform's edge without looking. She stopped just short of throwing herself over the edge. "Holy crap there's no barrier! There's really no barrier!"

She fell onto her behind and scrambled away. "Seriously, there aren't any handrails? Anywhere? Didn't the frickin architect ever hear of user safety? Or death by falling from a very steep height?" Asuna winced as she rubbed her backside. "_Damn_ magic, and damn fantasy architects everywhere!"

More cautious after nearly falling over the edge, Asuna approached it once again until she was able to peer down into the mist. She could make out some stone buildings located on a sandy piece of ground surrounded by water, and little flashes of light. She was also able to hear an occasional rumble, as though some colossal force had been angered down below.

"The damn circle brought me into the thing," she said as realization dawned upon her. Then a series of other realizations hit. "Great! Now how on Earth do I get out, and where are Takahata-sensei and the idiot companions?"

More rumbles came from below drew her attention back to her surroundings. She could see two little shapes flitting around in the air far below, with one seemingly following the other wherever it went. Every time they met one another, a heavy boom reached her ears as the very air seemed to vibrate. Something about them made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and she backed away from the platform's edge. Then the booming stopped and the air was filled with a tense silence that prickled her skin.

Asuna blinked as a flash of golden-red light pulsed from below. A column of energy blasted upwards in a giant beacon of light, reaching clear to her position. "Either that was magic, or someone just turned on the lava lamp to end all lava lamps."

Then the booming came back. Only this time the entire structure began to shudder with them. Asuna's instincts began going off like an alarm bell as she felt her body slide toward the edge.

* * *

"Dammit moron, why won't you _die _already? _Sagitta Magica: 503 __Arrows of Darkness and Ice!_"

"_Lightning Flame Dragon's Fist!_"

Eva swore aloud as she barely got an arm up in time to block Natsu's strike. His blow had torn through her arrows as if though they did not even exist, with the few that made it through bouncing off from his skin. The man's power and speed had shot through the roof and it was taking every bit of her vast experience to stay in one piece. _Screw that idiotic Thousand Master and his damned curse! _The tables had been turned as soon as he went into his transformation and Eva was scrambling to find a way to deal with it.

A painful explosion blasted into her arm as his fiery punch connected. As she reeled backwards, a zap of lightning magic connected to the same spot as Natsu's fiery fist. The shock numbed her entire arm and the limb dropped uselessly to her side. His attacks treated her barriers like they were made from paper cloth, with her barriers deflecting and absorbing only a fraction of the damage they should have been handling.

Eva ground her teeth together as she pushed through the pain. Natsu was coming in for another attack and she was out of position. _Not good. _She tried to twist her body around in order to shift her other arm into position but was unable to move fast enough. Natsu was upon her so quickly that Eva couldn't react even with a shundou. She could only watch as Natsu's blazing forearm impacted her chest. Why was it that idiots were gifted with so much power?

"_Lightning Flame Dragon's Firing Hammer!_"

* * *

Negi saw the explosion racing towards him. Entranced by its majesty, he could only stare at it. Then a figure interposed itself between him and the oncoming attack.

"_Ice Make: Shield!_"

A giant wall of shimmering-blue ice sprang into being in front of Negi. The fiery blast of magic impacted it with the sound of a hammer striking a frozen lake in winter. It made the young man flinch, snapping him out of his trance.

Cracks spread through Gray's ice and Negi could feel the air sizzle from the flame's heat. Whatever Natsu's magic was, it was far stronger than any fire magic the young teacher had ever seen. In comparison, it made Anya's magic look like fireworks. But Gray's shield held firm and the attack soon dissipated.

The shield of ice then cracked and fell apart, its magic spent. The young mage saw Gray's shoulders heave as he drew in deep breaths. Then the man began to mutter to himself as though Negi and Takamichi were not even two meters away.

"Frickin Natsu, always going overboard. The moron never considers the surrounding environment when he uses his attacks. And what's the deal with those overpowered attacks? Even Natsu's not that strong." Gray's eyes tracked Natsu's position as the other man jumped into the air to pursue his opponent. He grabbed hold of the smaller mage and threw her into the ground, landing on top of her with a fiery kick, where he proceeded to lay into her with a barrage of blows. "It has to be the weird magic in this air. The idiot's probably tapping into it somehow even though I couldn't."

Negi blinked as he considered the man's words. Tapping strange magic? Now that Gray mentioned it, Negi could feel that the air around them was somehow different. It felt more full, as though magic was flowing in a raging river rather than a small creek. His sense felt sharper and more intense than usual, and if he were to use magic the result would probably be quite interesting. Negi filed that little nugget of information away and bowed his head to the older boy in thanks.

"Thank you, Gray-san. That was marvelous magic you used." It truly was, even if it had only been able to hold against the attack's very edges. The sand where Eva had been standing had been turned to blackened glass, stretching to the area where Gray's shield had stood. While Negi felt certain that Takamichi could have handeled the attack, the young boy was not so sure that he could have done so himself.

The thought caused his tiny fists to momentarily clench. If he was unable to block something of this level, as amazing as it was, there was no way Negi was even close to his father. It was untenable.

Meanwhile, the older boy nodded his head and switched his gaze to Negi. Natsu had just thrown Eva into the air once more and was readying himself for another jump. "Anytime kid. Trust me, if we hang out with one another for very long, you'll probably return the favor someday for myself or my friends." Then the man gave a grunt and took off his jacket.

It joined his shoes and socks, which Negi saw had also been removed. Gray then gave him a grin and turned to look at Natsu. Perplexed, Negi looked at an equally confused Takamichi before moving his attention back to the fight as well. The Ice Mage was powerful but weird.

Eva had regained control of her body after being flung into the air and had begun chanting a spell. Straining his ears, Negi was just able to make the words out. "_Lic lac la lac lilac: Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes! Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis._"

Negi's eyes widened in shock; he recognized that spell! It was the chant for Snowstorm of Darkness, a High spell of Darkness and Ice. Eva had used it against him in their previous duel, but judging by the magic that Eva was gathering, it was a far more powerful version.

Eva's chanting reached its peak. She extended one hand to channel the spells power. "_Nivus Tempestas Obscurans!_" Then she moved her other hand forward and seemed to smirk at her opponent. "_Sagitta Magica:_ _313 Arrows of Darkness and Ice._"

Negi let out a gasp. Simultaneous casting of two powerful spells? There was no way that Natsu would be able to overcome them both at once.

Yet the man did not seem to panic as he flew through the air towards Eva's magic. The aura around his body flared ever more brightly and he opened his mouth wide.

"_Lightning Flame Dragon's Roar!_"

A stream of fire and lightning far greater than any before flowed out in a torrent of power. It impacted Eva's magic and blasted through it, smashing into the vampire's tiny form and hiding it from view. The spell drilled into the side of the enormous building where it exploded in a cloud of fire and lightning. Dust flew into the air and stones began to fall from the point of impact.

Then the actual sound of the explosion hit Negi. Crackling staccato from the spell's lightning component stabbed into his brain while the roaring of a jet airliner provided a constant backdrop. He could it hear it even through both hands covering his ears. It pounded into him mercilessly for several second as Natsu let the blast continue, pouring a steady stream into the area where Eva had disappeared.

Yet just as Natsu ended the attack and Negi took his hands from his ears, a high-pitched scream caught his attention. He quickly located its source and felt panic grip his heart. The young teacher placed his father's staff below his feet and hoped it was not too late to intervene.

* * *

Asuna was falling. Her instincts had been screaming at her to get away from the platform without rails, but she had hesitated a few seconds too long. Just as she had made it halfway across the bridge a tremor had torn through the stone beneath her feet. The next thing she knew the bridge was no longer beneath her and the distant water was getting closer..

_Damn you Negi, this is all your fault!_

* * *

Natsu plummeted back to earth and landed in a huge plume of sand. It obscured him from view, but it didn't really matter. Natsu could feel that his power was spent. He had thrown everything he had into that final blast and had nothing left in the tank. His eyes tracked her to the hole his spell had torn into the giant building.

He could see a single foot that seemed to twitch as rubble continued to fall. No other part of her body appeared. Natsu closed his eyes and concentrated on his hearing. She wasn't chanting anything, and he could just barely make out the sound of uneven breathing. His eyelids twitched as worry set in. He had only wanted to beat her black and blue. Maybe he really had overdone it this time.

Then Natsu heard the girl's terrified screams and looked to the right of the hole. Asuna was twisting back and forth as she fell and did not seem to be slowing her descent or preparing herself for impact with the water she was rushing to meet. The girl was falling too fast. Natsu cursed and began to run, only to trip and barely catch himself.

"I've got you Asuna-san!" Negi's cry reached Natsu's ears as clear as a tolling bell.

The young mage had hopped onto his oversized staff and was flying to meet the falling girl. He was moving nearly as fast as Natsu could, but thanks to the advantages of flight he was able to maintain the speed over the water's surface. His staff skimmed the water's surface as he neared the spot where Asuna would land. The girl's screams reached a fever pitch as the boy's staff reached the point and then shot upwards like a javelin into the sky.

Natsu watched as his body sank into the sand. Using the Lightning Flame Dragon mode for so long had taken its toll on his body and he couldn't make it to the girl in time. It was all on the kid.

Reaching an arm out, Negi caught the falling girl from the air and placed her onto his staff. Her screams died down as she clutched the thick piece of wood' and although Natsu could feel his ears begin to burn from the curses she rained down the boys head, it seemed that she would be safe. The staff moved gently across the sky and made its way back to land. Natsu grinned as Gray and the older guy, Takamichi, met the two. Then he punched his fist into the sand.

Natsu had rarely felt annoyed with his own power. Igneel had raised him to be proud of the fire within and Natsu had taken his words to heart. But at that moment, Natsu could feel anger and annoyance at the source of his strength bubbling up from within.

The lightning power he had gained from Laxus was different. Unlike the fire which came from his soul, the lightning had come from without. Using it gave him a boost in power but depleted his magic and left him weakened. Even now Natsu could feel a faint tightening spread through his body as it reacted to the lightning. If Natsu and Eva had been the only ones in the area, using the _Lightning Flame Dragon Mode_ would have gotten Asuna killed.

He punched the ground once again. After making sure that Eva and Asuna were okay, Natsu would take the choice of staying or leaving Mahora out of Gray's hands. Natsu needed to master this power before it turned into a liability. Otherwise it could be Happy, Lucy, or Wendy in need of saving with no one other than a weakened Natsu to save them.

Then a familiar scent made its way to his nose. Natsu jerked his head up and raised his hands just in time to shield his face.

"_Crystallitatio Tellustris._"

The ground surrounding Natsu turned to ice. Pillars jutted forth and surrounded the fire mage, trapping him in a frozen cage. To make matters worse, Natsu could not move his arms or legs. Her spell had frozen his arms and lower half completely and were already beginning to grow numb. He shot a look at Eva as she floated just out of his reach.

"Dammit, what does it take to put you down?" Her clothes were gone as if she had never worn any in the first place. Natsu could see every portion of her alabaster skin as she floated in the air above his trapped form. Yet despite her lack of clothing, there was not a single sign of a burn or scratch on any part of her naked body. "Even Gildarts would've been hurt by that!"

She returned his look with a venomous glare of her own. "I am Nosferatu, little hatchling." She bared her teeth at him as her green eyes began to glow red. "And not even the wrath of a true dragon can compare to my own."

Natsu summoned the dregs of his power as she moved away from him. Weak flames flared into being and slowly melted the ice around his body. Above, she began to chant. The words were nonsense to his ears even with Negi's charm but still managed to raise the hair on the back of his neck.

"_Lic lac la lac lilac:_ _Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε!_"

He stopped trying to free his body. The very air tingled from the power Eva was gathering to herself. It was all or nothing. He drew in a deep breath and gathered the fire within his stomach as she unleashed the spell.

"_Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία!__Κοσμικη Κρυσταλλοπηγια!_"

"_Fire Dragon's Roar!_"

The dragon slayer's flame rushed out to meet the vampire's ice magic. The two opposing elements touched, and for the first time since the fight began, Natsu saw one of his attacks be completely overwhelmed. The frozen stream of ice overpowered his dragon's breath and came into contact with his body.

After a brief flash of pain he knew no more.

* * *

**Next Time in **_**Fairies of Negima**_**:** The aftermath of the fight is assessed, plans are set in motion and one faction of villains make their first appearance.

A/N: There you have it. Natsu put up a damn good fight but got destroyed in the end. The gang from FT are powerful, probably Middle and Upper-Middle Tier (except for Lucy and the Exceed) as Negima ranks things, but they have a long way to go before they reach the levels of Eva, Nagi and Rakan. Meanwhile, my next chapter should be out pretty fast. I split off a good portion of this one and just need to flesh it out. Keep it hanging in the meantime. That cliff I stranded you on will soon be gone.

On a tangent, I will probably read through and edit all of my chapters once I hit chapter 10 or 15. By that time I should have a solid grasp on how I write characters that I did not possess when I first started this fic and there are a couple of sections in prior chapters which bug me. I'll keep up my usual work and will include any updates within future A/N's. Additionally, the poll for Negi's group is still up. I'd recommend voting... or only 8 people out of over 2,000 unique visitors will have a say in Negi's romance.

Proofread by the one and only ___Raiyoukai_, Savior of Theodora. For all you Theodora lovers out there, thank him profusely; she was on the distant chopping block before he intervened.

Until Next Time,

Elsil


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